


Scraps

by demonfire57



Series: The Funtimes (FNAF Sister Location Stories) [1]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Eventual Relationships, Human(oid) Animatronics (Five Nights at Freddy's), Minor Violence, Possessed Animatronics (Five Nights at Freddy's), Scraps, Sentient Animatronics (Five Nights at Freddy's)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:07:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 28,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24608905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonfire57/pseuds/demonfire57
Summary: Sterling (Ster) is a scrap artist, creating art pieces using old equipment and rusted metal. When an old friend discovers old animatronic pieces in the scrap yard, neither one expects them to have once belonged to a high end children's entertainment restaurant.
Series: The Funtimes (FNAF Sister Location Stories) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803328
Comments: 34
Kudos: 62





	1. Scrap Yard

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: Huge thank you to @pigergast for letting me know about a few grammatical errors! Thanks again, hun!

Smog hung heavy, low to the ground. It whisped through broken down metal and rusted copper coilings like steam off of boiling water. The place reaked of burnt oil and gas fumes, rust and decay.

This was a scrap yard, one of the few in my local town. A place I liked to call "home."

Though, it wasn't really a home, more of my work enviorment, if you will.

I trudged through the lot, the heavy work boots I wore crunching the metal and gravel deeper into the earth's soil. Shells of cars piled miles high in all directions, some parts of the dissembled equipment rolled down the sides when machinery shifted the rusted equiptement.

I wasn't here for the old stuff, though.

I was a salvager by trait, taking pieces of scraps and creating them into art scupltures. Some of my best stood in several city parks while others had made homes in people's houses, a vision of a world with more recycling and reusing of old metals.

I was in need of something new. Something fresh.

I had begun to run out of ideas for my creations as of late, the juices ceasing entirely. I wasn't ready to move completely from my scrap creations though, I just needed to restart the fluids in order to continue to do what I loved most.

That was when I received a call.

An old buddy of mine who worked in one of the local scrap yards told me about the strange metal shipment they recently accepted. All new broken down metals, but looked as if they came from a futuristic timeline. My interest had peaked as possible discoveries flowed through my brain. 

_ Well, it would be worth a shot to look into, that's for sure. _

My buddy, Gerry, waved at me as I came closer. I smiled and waved in return.

"Ster! I was wondering when ya'd be showing up!" Gerry gave out a big belly laugh.

"You do realize how big this place is, right?" I joked in return.

"Yeah, I know, We've been meaning to cut down on accepting metal pieces, but people these days don't know what's worth anything anymore."

I would have considered Gerry as a second father. He was a big brute of a man, all muscles plus brains. He sometimes over-towered the other men in the scrap yard with his monster height of six-five. Had he been interested in sports instead of scrap collecting, he would've made it into the NFL or the NBA with no problem.

Overall, Gerry was a good man. He worked day in and day out, operating both machinery and by hand. His brute strength came in handy when large rusted metal sheets came to the yard. Though he was reaching the retirement age, he didn't ever seem to want to look into hanging up his work belt yet. He loved his work, and his coworkers loved him. I couldn't see a day when I came to the scrap yard and not see his wrinkled grinning face, or feel the large heavy hand resting on my shoulder when he would show me a new piece of metal that would come in handy for my next project.

"Ya want to see what it was that I was telling ya about?"

I nodded eagerly.

Gerry gave a whistle and one of the men lowered the scoop of one of the many excavators near.

In the the metal holder, robotic parts laid in a crumpled mess. Rusted with age, I could the faint colors of blues, reds, pinks, and whites. Facial pieces were also entangled in the mess, some were human, others of animals - specifically a fox and a bear. 

I looked at Gerry in question.

"Some old fellow came by with a dump truck filled with stuff early this week," Gerry explained, pointing to the wreckage that sat before us, "Some of it wasn't worth more than a George Washington, but I saw these and thought you of all people might be interested."

"Did he say how he came by these?" I asked.

"Said he used to work in maintance back in the day, gathered scraps to tinker around with during his shifts," Gerry shrugged his shoulders, "Told me these scraps caused him more trouble than they were worth an' wanted to get rid of 'em. Cost me only three Ben Franks for the whole deal, truck and all."

I looked at the mess of animatronic parts. They could be worth a pretty penny if polished up and fixed, maybe I could find out more about them and where they came from as well.

"I'll take them."

***

The old family farm house was probably my best investment since starting my scrap metal art. The barn was big enough to store all of my equipment as well as the pieces I had collected and created over the years.

I backed my pick up into the barn, allowing me to be able to take the pieces from the bed and organize them into a "creation" and "use" pile. The "creation" pile was pieces for the outerior of the project, sometimes shells of old cars, bicycle wheels, anything that was big. The "use" pile was for the smaller things; wiring, screws, break pedals, anything small or near invisible. 

Taking my time, I pulled the back of the truck open and began to scrounge through the mass of entangled parts. Wiring, copper coils, power cores... whoever had these animatronics must've decided to just crush them instead of taking them apart like a sensible person would.

Then again, I did work with scraps.

I picked of the bear's covering, surprised to see the inner shell and endo skull still attatched. I looked it over with a keen eye when I noticed a marking engraved under it's jaw. It was covered with dirt and hard to see because of the rust. I tucked the head under my arm, jumping from the bed of the truck and heading toward my work desk.

The light flickered on overhead as I sat before the bear's head, a cloth and polish in one hand.

I slowly began the process of removing the dirt and grime from the engraved metal, then moved onto the polish, pulling the rust off with surprising ease. The engraving flashed under the light and my jaw drop from what my eyes beheld.

The engraving was that of an animatronic bear with a top hat and sinister smile. Below his face were the words:  _ Property of Fazbear Entertainment. _


	2. The Joy of Creation

_ "Fazbear entertainment? As in the Freddy Fazbear restaraunt?!" _

"That's right, Gerry," I answered, pouring myself a cup of coffee for the umptienth time today as my head and shoulder held my phone in place, "I was surprised by it too."

_ "Damn, I should've asked ya more for them now that I know they belonged in that creepy place." _

"I don't think these ones came from the actual restaurant though," I said, taking a sip, "They're different from the show room ones back in the eighties. I think these ones belonged to a different chain."

_ "But created by the same company? That, darling, is something crazy. Ya know what happened in those old restaurants, right?" _

"All rumor, Gerry. Nothing was ever proved."

_ "Not by the courts at least, Ster. But everybody and their mother knew what was going on in that place. Don't ya forget I was in my late teens, early twenties when everthin' went down." _

I didn't need the reminder.

The locals believed the pizzaria was haunted and the workers admitted to hearing strange noises coming from within the walls of the place, even though no one claimed to have seen anything out of the ordinary. The only person who claimed to seen anything was a former security guard by the name of "Mike Schmidt." He claimed to have seen the animatronics come to life and try to break into his office during the night. The company explained that the animatronics were never given a proper night mode nor did they want the servers within the spring lock costumes to lock up over night.

But it wasn't the startling noises in the walls nor the night time active animatronics that had people worried. It was actually the disapperences of several children, ten to be exact. All the families had filed lawsuits after each child disappeared, but the cases never went through to court. Many locals believed the company was using a sort of "hush money" to get the families to shut up about it. Though, when a family was asked about it, they claimed to have been mistaken for a child that was supposedly visiting a set of grandparents out of state.

In the end, however, the restaurant closed it's doors, the place eventually became abandoned.

The place was planning on opening for Halloween last October as a fright attraction, but a fire caused by faulty wiring burnt it to the ground. Some pieces were salvaged, but nothing worth my time nor money to auction on.

_ "Ster! Ster!" _

I shook my head, "Sorry, Gerry. Lost in thought."

_ "Geez, I almost thought I'd have to call the police cause one of them creepy animatronics grabbed you!"  _

I chuckled, "Gerry, I don't think they would be able to grab me. They're all a mess of tangled parts, wiring, and circuts right now."

I heard him huff over the phone,  _ "Look Ster, take my advice. Burn those pieces and I'll get ya somethin' fresh from one of the back piles. Don't try to fix those things, they're incredibly dangerous and I don't want ta see ya get hurt or worse. You're a good kid, Ster. Think about it." _

The line went dead as he hung up.

I tucked my phone back into my pocket and looked at the Freddy head that sat on my counter as I took a thoughtful sip from my coffee cup.

_ Think about it. What was there really to think about? _

I knew that these animatronics really could be dangerous. I should burn the pieces and forget that I had ever seen them.

But...

I placed the coffee cup on the counter and crouched down to get a good look at the Freddy head. Eyes closed, mouth shut, one ear was missing and his top hat that I knew had to be black. It looked so sad, alone without anything to live for. These things may have been dangerous, but they were designed to be entertainers.

Surely one fixed animatronic wouldn't hurt, right?

***

The rest of the morning and into the afternoon, I began the steady work of placing poor Freddy back together. 

During the process of finding his parts and circuits, I discovered that most, if not all, of the pieces for the others were there as well. There was a Foxy, though not a pirate like I had half hoped to see, a ballerina, and a clown-like baby. there were a few small pieces for smaller animatronics that i hadn't seen the shells for, so I set them aside to work on later.

When it was closing in on about two-thirty, I set my work gloves and goggles aside to get a good look at my progress thus far. Freddy was already coming together quite nicely. He sat now with his body and his two arms attatched to him once more. I still would need to attatch his legs and look into his powering system before anything else happened, but it was a good start. 

Looking over the bear, I cocked my head this way and that, thinking about how nice it would be to have a companion around.

I lived alone, much to the dismay of my family, and didn't really care to date much. Any guys that did look at me only wanted to try out dinner before moving on to the next girl. I was the "in-between," a perfect fit for a guy who was moving from one relationship to the next. 

It didn't matter to me, really. I actually kept in contact with a lot of them, selling them a few rarity tools or scraps I found during my scrap tours with Gerry. They all were good friends, but they had their own lives to live, as I did. Sometimes the aching sense of loneliness would creep in and I would have to remind myself to take my pills before thinking nothing but happy thoughts. 

I shook the thoughts away, still looking at the halfway fixed Freddy animatronic. Yes, it would be exciting to have a companion around. I took my leave of the barn, locking the doors tightly to keep unwanted guests from entering before heading to the house.

The summer sun still sat high in the sky as the heat hung in the air. The air conditioning hummed from deep within the basement of the old farm house as I padded from the back door to my bedroom.

The house actually had belonged to some old friends of my father's before they decided to move south, towards more sun and beautiful beaches. I was just finishing up college when they decided to move on, and since I always loved the house, I jumped on the opportunity and bought it.

The farm house had two floors, not including the basement, or cellar as the previous owners had called it. Three bedrooms and a bathroom on the top floor, another bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living space on the ground floor. Though the upper leveles were never used, I always allowed my brother and his family use the rooms when they came to visit, my niece and nephew always looking forward to have their own rooms... unless my sister and her family came to visit during the same week.

I shuffled around my small room, which had been a nursery once upon a time. The walls were still painted a pretty baby blue with white curtians on the two windows in the room. The hard wood flooring creaked under my weight, polished and smooth yet cool to the touch even in the dead of summer.

I was finishing pulling a tank on when the doorbell rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	3. Family Matters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: updated grammar and punctuation.

I chuckled, shouting to hold on before making my way to the front door.

Through the screen door, my brother, Jeremiah, and his little family stood on the steps, an overnight bag in each one of their hands.

"Jer!"

"Hey sis!"

I pulled open the doors as my niece and nephew rushed into my open arms.

"Auntie Sterling!" they cried in unison.

My niece, Abigail, was very much like her father. Little dark ringlets made up what was her hair and her skin was constantly sun-kissed, lighter than Jer's or mine. Her dark eyes always had a little spark of mischief playing in the background, making one wonder what she had gotten into this time. My nephew, Augustine, looked a lot like his mother. He was a shy little boy, the middle child, with thick chocolate-strawberry hair. His little green eyes sometimes held conviction, while other times shifted in nervousness. Both kids, though, were pleasant and curious, wondering about the world around them like most five and seven year olds.

"Hello little ones!" I smiled, hugging them tightly, "What a nice little surprise!"

"Yeah, sorry about this," Jeremiah stepped in through the doorway, helping his wife, Clara, and the newest addition, Tim, through as well, "figured since you were close by, it be a good idea to swing by."

"Not at all," I smiled, flipping my hand in dismissal, "My home is always open to you and Clara, you know that very well."

Clara handed Tim over to Jeremiah before embracing me, "Still, Ster, we appriciate everything you've helped us out with these past months."

I giggled, "And that's what family is for, am I right?"

My brother and his wife had been living closer to my parents since they got pregnant with their oldest. It was primarly due to that Clara was one of local school's principles as well as a member of the school board for better education and Jeremiah worked on call constantly for the city's hospital, working a nurse in the opperating room.

Since both worked increasingly long hours, the kids tended to stay at their grandparents place during the day. On special occasions, they would spend a day or two with me, helping me around the house and the yard. It was also during these special occasions that I would take them into the barn and show them my newest scrap pieces. Both of them wanted to learn how to make scrap art, but I decided to keep things simple. Screw and bolts only, if they wanted to weld it, they would have to ask me to do it for them.

As the two youngesters ran up the stairs to their respected bedrooms, I helped get Clara and Jer settled in their room.

"So, what's the occasion for swing by?" I asked.

"Just got back from our vacation in New Orleans," Clara smiled, rocking her baby in her arms, "Only a few days, but enough for the two of us."

"I suppose, especially now that you both have your hands full with three instead of two."

"And mom wanted us to check on you," Jer admitted, "You haven't called her for a month, Ster. She's worried, so is pop."

I rolled my eyes.

Being the youngest of a family with two other kids had it's perks, but it also had it's cons. Mom was constantly worried about me, asking if I was working, eating, and dating. Dating, no; but everything else, yes.

"Mom has enough on her plate than to constantly worry about me and what I'm up to," I grumbled slightly, crossing my arms.

"Mothers always worry for their kids," Clara chuckled, "I should know."

"So do dads," Jer looked at me, mischief cooking in his dark eyes, "I think both of us learned that a long time ago."

"Yes, but also you're married, I'm not. I feel badgered by the both of them to 'grow up and get married'. I don't want kids, I'm happy living on my own."

"Then tell mom. She won't stop badgering, as you put it, until you tell her what your plans are in life."

Jer was right. Of the three of us kids, he was always the level headed one, thinking often. It scared me sometimes how deep his thoughts could get, so much so it was like he was reading my mind and future like a fortune teller. But he also had the experience to prove it. Jer always spoke up for me and my older sister, still did sometimes to this day.

My shoulders dropped and nodded, nothing would bring about any good if I continued being stubborn.

***

We decided carry-out was the best option for an early supper.

Jer and his family hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, aside for a few snacks on the plane and car ride back home. Personally, I didn't feel like cooking much. So, I called in an order for pizza, pasta, and breadsticks before slicing a few apples as an additional option.

By the time dinner had arrived, all six of us were starving.

As we ate, the kids told me about the New Orleans trip and showed photos of all the places they visited, including the museums and art theatres. Jer talked about the gumbo dishes at one of the many local restaraunts and how he had managed to get a recipe book for mom to try.

"Isn't gumbo a bit spicy for mom's taste?" I asked.

Jer shrugged his shoulders, "She can always cut the heavy spices out if she needs to. She needs to spread out a bit, she can't keep making the same old meat and potatoes thing every night. The kids had pork chops and mashed potatoes three times last week."

I chuckled before taking another bite of pizza.

After supper was devoured and the dishes were cleared, Jer and his family followed me out the barn. I had told them during our wait for dinner about the new scrap pieces I had perchased from Gerry, though I didn't want to ruin the surprise by tell them where they had come from.

"Auntie Ster, do you think we could help you with this next art piece?" Abigail asked, her small hand wrapped around my left hand as she skipped along beside me.

"I don't think I'll be able to this time, hon," I answered, "There's a lot of small pieces that needs precision when working with them. Maybe next time?"

Abigail nodded as we reached the barn doors. I pulled my keys out, unlocking the pad lock, and pushed them open to allow them into my workshop.


	4. Into the Belly of the Bear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Sorry for delay, was busy with work and needed to take time to rest.  
> My goal is to get maybe another chapter up before the 20th of this month, but we'll see...
> 
> Edit: Fixed a few errors I found early this morning.

Abigail and Augustine ran into the workshop, their childish squeals of delight echoing off the tall wooden paneling. 

"Hey! No running please!" Jer shouted at them, "Remember your auntie's rules about her workshop!"

I shook my head, chuckling, listening as the kids roamed the barn, looking at all the equiptment.

Most of it had belong to our dad during his electrician days. He would show us kids how to fix the lights as well as showed us how to make our own electricity if the power should ever go out. We each had our own home-made flashlights that were made of wiring, a bulb, a small switch, and a battery, all lined up on a small wooden board. I sometimes would use it as a reading light because of how well it worked compared to other small lights we had around the house.

"Come're guys!" I called to the kids, "I want to show my newest additions!"

I lead them back to my work table, where the Freddy animatronic still sat. 

My brother gaped at the sight of it while Clara and the kids _ oohed  _ and  _ aahed _ at the animatronic.

"It looks like a bear!" Abigail giggled, keeping a safe distance from it.

"Where'd you find this?" Jer asked.

"Gerry called me earlier this week and told me he had some parts that I might be interested in," I explained, "I took the scraps and all and found out they belonged to Fazbear Entertainment at some point."

"As in 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza'?" Jer asked in a low voice.

"What's Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?" August asked, shaking his dad's short pants.

"Nothing, you kids go play, I need to talk to your aunt alone."

The kids understood what 'alone' meant and disappeared before I could shout for them to be careful.

As we walked away from the work table, Clara piped up, "Jeremiah, what's wrong?"

"It's the fact that Sterling has possession of haunted animatronics," Jer answered.

"Oh, not you too!" I groaned.

"Yes, me too, Ster," Jer answered, "I take it Gerry also talked to you about getting rid of those things?"

"Yes, but you're not going to sway me from keeping them," I answered, "Besides, I don't think these ones came from the original restaruant."

"I don't think so either," Clara spoke, "I think that bear might be one of the 'Funtime' animatronics."

"The funtime animatronics?" Niether Jer nor I had heard of those before.

"From what I remember," Clara answered, bouncing Timmy in her arms, "The funtimes were created as retals. My mother had a party when she was about seven or eight and remembers her family renting an animtronic from a place called "Baby's Circus." She talked about how they could be rented for an hour or so before being transported to the next party. She even has a few faded pictures of them and the coloring is very similar to the bear."

"What did the funtimes consist of?" I was very intrigued by what my sister-in-law had brought to my attention.

"I think there were four of them; a ballarina named Ballora, Funtime Foxy, Funtime Freddy, and a clown called 'Baby,' I think... It's been a long time since I asked mom about it."

"And?" Jeremiah asked, "Are they just as dangerous as the other animatronics?"

"I wouldn't know," Clara shrugged helplessly, "I've never seen a Fazbear entertainment animatronic in person before. I remember my mom having a lot of fun during her party all those years ago, but I don't think the Funtimes are anything like those musty old originals."

"Momma! Daddy! August's trapped!"

At the shouting of Abigail, all three of us moved quickly, racing from one corner of the barn to the workshop table.

Abigail was standing in front of the withered animatronic, her hands balled into her fists and her eyes red with tears. The animatronic's belly was closed and we could hear high pitch screaming coming from within the belly.

"What happened?" Jer grabbed Abigail's arms, his eyes practically begging her to stop crying so she could look at him.

"I-I-I..." the scared girl couldn't speak clearly.

I grabbed a crowbar, going to the animatronic. My heart was pounding in my ears, focus zeroing in on the hatch that lead to the hollowed belly. I placed the end of the crowbar into the edge of the plated door, pushing against the metal hard.

I finally heard a creaking sound, "August! I need you to listen to Auntie Ster for just a moment!"

The small child inside the bear sniffled, whimpering softly.

"I need you to press yourself against the back of the bear, okay? Tuck yourself into your body like you were taught when there's a bad storm."

I heard more whimpering.

"Talk to me, baby," Clara shouted, "Do you understand what Aunt Ster is saying?"

"Yes, momma..." we heard the small boy's voice from within the bear.

"Okay, on the count of three... One... Two..."

The door popped off, flying off it's hinges and onto the floor with a loud  _ clank! _

I knelt in front of the animatronic, relieved to see August crouched in the far back of the bear. I smiled at him as he lifted his little head, eyes wide with surprise and fear.

"Hey, August," I held my arms out, "You're safe now, come on out."

The little boy crawled forward, reaching out as I pulled his body out of the belly of the bear.

Clara, still holding Timothy in her arms, came forward, wrapping her arms around me and August, kissing the top of his head. 

"Are you okay baby? You didn't get hurt while you were in there, did you?" Clara held her boy's cheek in one hand while her eyes scanned over her little one's body.

"I'm okay, momma," August spoke up, "I just got scared. It was really dark."

I could feel myself visibly relax. 

"Your Aunt Ster has told you both specifically to be careful in here," Jeremiah scolded his kids, anger clear in his eyes.

"We're sorry dad, we just wanted to look at the bear," August said from my arms.

"How did you get in there, anyway?"

August pointed to the hatchway where the open belly was visible to all, "The bear started speaking to us. It said there was candy in it's belly for us to have. Abigail couldn't fit in the entrance, so I went in. But the door closed behind me and we couldn't get it open."

Jer, Clara, and I looked at Abigail, who nodded in agreement, before looking at each other.

***

After the kids and the baby had gone to bed, the three of us sat in the sitting room with cups of coffee in front of us.

"I think you should get rid of that thing," Jer spoke, "It's lucky that we were there to get August out when we did, but who could say about the next time?"

"There won't be a next time," I frowned at Jeremiah, "I'm planning on removing the belly from the animatronic as soon as I can."

"Sterling, you're missing the point," Clara spoke, "Whatever happened out there caused one of my babies to get trapped inside one of your creations, scared too. Those things are dangerous."

"But what is missing is how the bear communicated with your kids in the first place, he's not even on! I haven't placed any sorce of power inside him yet."

"Sterling," Jeremiah placed his hands in his face as I felt another lecture coming.

"I'm not just worried about the kids. I'm worried about Stacy's kids as well as you. What if one of them tries something on you and none of us are here to help you? You could get hurt or killed, and there won't be anyone to help you get to safety. I know you think you can take care of things yourself, but what about the time when that car engine rolled down the junk pile in the yard? Or when you sliced your forearm open with a sharp piece of metal?

"You were lucky on both occassions," Jer continued, "Gerry was in the junk yard with you and both mom and dad had decided to stop by for a visit. You can't be garenteed luck all the time because you're here by yourself. If you had a housemate or lived with someone, I don't think I'd be as worried. But since you don't, I will worry. You're my little sister and I'd hate to be the one to tell my kids that they can't see you anymore because something horrible happened."

I folded my hands, resting my mouth on them, deep in thought.

We heard creaking of the stairs and looked up to see August slowly creeping down, his eyes red with more tears.

"Bad dream, baby?" Clara asked.

"Yeah," August sniffled.

Clara indicated him to come closer, then pulled the little boy in her lap. I stood, saying I would make him a small cup of hot coco, which had helped me and my sibilings when we were kids and had suffered nightmares.

As I prepared the coco, I thought back to what Jeremiah said. I peaked around the corner as Jer and Clara comforted their little one, chasing away his fears. 

_ Perhaps they were right... _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Kudos?


	5. Small Surprises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh... well this was unexpected...
> 
> Edit: fixed additional errors

I woke up early the following morning, memories of the previous day flooding back. I had gone out to the barn after waking up and double checked to make sure nothing had moved since the events of yesterday.

I will admit, I was scared to death after what happened to my nephew. 

During the night, I heard my poor brother and his wife shifting in the bedroom above mine, no doubt making room so August would feel safe and secure. I hoped that this incident wouldn't have lasting effects on him and that he would still want to play in the workshop with me and Abigail when they visited.

The half-built animatronic bear still sat on the work table, belly open for the world to see. I could feel my eyes narrow at it, wishing that I never had bought the damn thing. None of this would have happened if I had taken Gerry advice and burnt them all to the ground.

I turned away and headed back up to the house to get a cup of coffee and make breakfast for my weary guests.

Eggs, bacon, and pancakes cluttered the countertop by the time the kids had made their way down stairs, Abigail clutching the long arm of a plush rabbit called "Ditzy" and August clinging to a teddy bear called "Art," short for Artemus.

Abigail rubbed the sleep from her eyes, yawning loudly.

"Sleep well, baby?" Clara asked from the table, a cup of coffee and an empty plate in front of her.

"Yeah," the little girl climbed into her chair.

August followed suit as I placed two full plates of hot food in front of them.

"No more nightmares?" I asked hopefully.

August shook his head, "Though the one I had last night was pretty scary."

I looked over at Jeremiah, worry filled my heart. He waved his hand in dismissal, no need to talk about it now with them here.

After breakfast, Jeremiah shooed the kids upstairs to get their bags packed so they could hit the road again. He looked at his watch, "We'll most likely be home by mid-afternoon today as long as travel isn't bad."

"It will be so nice to be back in our homes and our own beds," Clara chuckled, "Never mind that your house is like a second home to us, Ster."

"As I said before," I laughed, "my home is always open to you and the kids."

"Any plans for the rest of the day?"

"Just chores, I need to get the laundry done, espcially after my trip to the junk yard yesterday."

"And you'll think about what I've said?" Jer asked.

"I've already thought about it," I answered, picking up one of their travel bags, "I'm going to keep the parts, but I won't tempt to put the animatronics together. I can easily use some of those power cores for the house or lighting in the barn, and I always need wiring for one proect or another."

"And the shells and endo skeletons?"

"Consider them this year's halloween decorations."

Both laughed in delight.

***

"Bye Auntie Sterling!" Abigail and August waved goodbye from their car seats as Jer pulled out of the drive.

"Bye kiddos! I'll see you all later! Drive safe!"

I watched with sadness and relief to see my brother and his family go. It was bitter sweet never knowing when I'd see them next, but relief that I was once again free to do my own thing.

I headed back up to the house, pulling my phone out and calling a number that Jer mentioned to.

_ "Hello?" _

"Hey mom, how are you?"

_ "Sterling! Honey! I haven't heard from you for a while!" _

"I know," I say, taking seat on my front steps, "I've been busy."

_ "So I've thought. What's this next project your working on? 'Field of flowers'? 'Butterfly nets'?" _

"Actually, I haven't worked on one since 'Lady at the Well,'" I answered, "I actually bought a few new pieces from Gerry yesterday and was going to work on something after I called you."

_ "Oh, baby. You know how happy that makes me feel? I'm proud of you, Ster. I know I don't say it enough, but I am very proud of you. Your father, too." _

"How's pops, by the way?"

_ "Oh, you know. He outpracticing his swing. We're thinking of taking Abigail and Augustine to a mini golf course next week when they get back from their trip." _

"Well, their plane landed yesterday, so they spent the evening with me."

I told mom about the barn incident, letting her know that Augustine may not be himself for a while.

_ "Poor dear! I remember a time my sister had a similar experience." _

"Aunt Sue got trapped in the belly of an animatronic bear?" I asked.

_ "Well, not like that,"  _ mom paused,  _ "I never told you kids about the Funtime Animatronics because you kids used to love the old cartoons, which I never saw as a problem as I grew up with them as a kid myself." _

"You... you know about the Funtime Animatronics?" I was speechless.

_ "Well, yes dear. In those days, parties were a common thing, at least for the families that could afford them. Your Aunt Sue loved 'Fredbear and Friends' so much that she practically begged our mother to go to the restaruant for her sixth birthday. Your grandmother couldn't afford to spend that much money on a party, but when she heard about animatronic rentals, she jumped right on board." _

"What happened?"

_ "Well, your grandparents rented an animatronic that was very similar to Freddy Fazbear... I think it's name was "Funtime Freddy" or something like that. Anyway, the animatronic malfunctioned during it's performance and your aunt was so upset that she actually went up and kicked the poor thing. She kicked it so hard that the bear fell over! _

_ "My folks were lucky they didn't get sued by the company, but since the animatronic had malfunctioned, the company considered it even. After that, your aunt had horrible nightmares involving the animatronic bear and the little bunny puppet it had on it's right hand for weeks after her party. Grandpa always said, 'That's what you get for knocking the stupid animatronic over.'" _

I chuckled slightly, "And Aunt Sue?"

I could hear my mom start laughing,  _ "Well, she refused to watch 'Fredbear and Friends' ever again. I think she still gets nervous if anyone mentions the word 'robotic' to her." _

Poor Aunt Sue.

I chuckled, "Well, I hate to let you go mom, but I have some house chores to do."

_ "Alright, hon. You take care of yourself. Still planning on being up hear for Maybelle's birthday in two weekends?" _

"Still planning on it," I smiled at the thought of my other niece, "I'll bring the cake."

_ "Oh, she'll love it. You know just how she likes it too." _

"White and blue jello cake with whipped cream frosting and pink sprinkles."

_ "That's the way!" _

Saying our goodbyes, I hung up and took a deep breath. That might have been the first time I had a conversation with my mother that didn't involve her asking about my relationships. Either way, it was nice hearing her voice again.

I stood and headed into the house, my mind now free of any distractions.

***

I took my time going through each of the guest bedrooms, ensuring that my brother and his family left nothing behind. Anything I would find would be placed into a cardboard box that I would ship off to them right away, just to make sure that they got to their proper places safely. After that, I pulled the sheets and blankets off each bed, taking the bundles of dirty clothing down to the basement and sorting them into sheets and blankets for washing.

I was grabbing the last of the sheets off the bed little Abigail had slept in when I heard a soft twinkling noise. It sounded very close to a bell or the sound of a small girl's music box. I shifted through the bundle of cloth and down before catching a small shape wriggling in the cloth.

I pulled the cloth away and what sat before me was something I've never seen before.


	6. Minireena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When summoned by Dee-Dee, 4 Minireenas will cover your screen for 1 in-game hour (45 seconds), blocking the majority of your office view. This can make dealing with other animatronics more difficult. - FNAF Ultimate Custom Night 
> 
> Lol, another chapter - featuring the first of the minireenas
> 
> Note: I originally didn't know how to spell "minireena" so please excuse that spelling error until I can get it fixed :3

The little creature was small, only about eight inches in height, and the color of oakwood. It reminded me a lot of the art manikins that artists used to get the proportions of a full figured body just right. The only difference between this little creature and those manikins was the little white cloth that was wrapped around it's waist like a tutu and, when the creature looked up at me, it's face looked like it was painted - with black souless eyes and an open mouth.

It made a small twinkle noise as it knelt in the bedsheets that were still in my hands, cocking it's head at the sight of me in curiousity.

"Well, now," I blinked in surprise, "who are you?"

The little creature stood, balancing on it's toes like a ballarina and attempted to spin. The cloth entangled itself around the little ballarina's feet, making it fall foward. I moved my hand, allowing their little hands to catch themselves on my fingers.

"A ballerina, eh?" I chuckled as they straightened themselves, "Can you speak?"

The minireena shook it's head in a negative.

I furrowed my brows, "Well, how did you get in here then?"

The minireena pointed it's hand to the window.

"Through the window?"

It shook it's head again, twinkling as it continued to point toward the window. I gently took the mini-ballerina out of the cloth, set it gently in the palm of my hand, and headed toward the window, looking out and seeing nothing but the barn. I turned my attention to the minireena.

"From the barn?"

It nodded, clapping it's hands joyously that I finally understood.

I looked back out to the barn, muttering, "How the heck did get in my barn? And how did you get from the barn to the house without being seen? It's a walk, even for me."

The minirena twinkled again, pulling on my thumb. I looked down as it pointed toward the doorway.

There's only one way to find out what it wanted.

***

I set the minireena on my work table once we were in the barn. The broken Funtime Freddy animatronic still sat atop the desk, making the little ballerina a little uncomfortable; or so I thought they were.

I placed a paper and a pencil before the little ballerina, leaning back in my work chair before explaining, "Just use the pencil and paper to communicate what's going on, please."

The ballerina seemed to understand, picking up the pencil and wrapping their arms around the base before slowly dragging it across the paper.

I watched with interest as it wrote an "H," then "E." It continued onward with "L," "P," "U," and finished with "S."

_ Help us? _

"Who is 'us'?"

The minireena pointed to the bear next to us, then they pointed to the pile of scraps containing the fox and the ballerina. I scratched the top of my head.

"How?"

The minireena pointed to itself, making a clicking noise. It sounded like small gears whirling.

I held up my hands, "Wait... you want me to fix them?"

The minireena jumped up and down, clapping it's hands again with delight.

_ Well, at least I'm making progress here. _

Leaning forward, I rested my head in my hand, eyes studing the little ballerina before me, "And what if I can't?"

It took a moment for the ballerina to think. I watched as it crossed it's arms, it's hand tapping against it's chin, clearly deep in thought. It took up the pencil again and drew a picture. A small bear with a bunny, then a fox, and a smiling woman. It looked up at me expectantly.

"You believe I can fix them?"

The little creature nodded.

"And how do you know? Maybe I just tinker for a living?"

The pencil dropped, the minireena resting it's hands on it's hips and tapping it's foot impatiently. Then, it pointed to it's face then back at me.

"You... were you watching me this whole time?!"

A little twinkle came from the ballerina like a childish giggle. I scrunched my face at it, very childishly, I might add.

"Seriously? Then where did you come from and how did you get from here to the house?"

The minireena pointed to the pile of scraps again. 

_ They were hiding in there? From what? _

Then they tapped the work table before jumping from it and clung to the front of my t-shirt. The minireena was very light-weight, barely noticeable if they hadn't alerted me of what they were going to do.

"You found me and grabbed me and held on until I got into the house?" I asked, an eyebrow raised. The little creature nodded before falling into my hand as I gently returned them to the desk.

"Well now that's settled," I answered, "Now I know where you came from, and how you got into my house, and most likely how you got into my niece's bed, will you answer one more question?"

I watched as it nodded eagerly before asking, "How come you're the only one who wasn't destroyed. I mean, the others are broken down to bits, and I'm assuming you technically belong to the ballerina in that pile over there, so how did you manage to get away?"

It seemed to take the ballerina a bit of time. They first pointed to the woman on the page then tapped it's chest.

"Your owner hid you in it's chest?"

The minireena shook it's head in a negative before picking up the pencil again, drawing three circles with arrows pointing toward the woman. The last circle had an arrow pointing away from her and the rest of the group. Then, the minireena draw a triangle with a long line, creating an axe-like shape.

I continued to watch as the minireena hopped over to an empty space, drawing squiggles like a child would in a coloring book before drawing another arrow from another circle to the squggle pile. When it finished, it dropped the pencil and knelt on the desk, it's souless eyes watching me as I took everything in.

"Okay," I said after some time, "Let me see if I got this right."

I pointed to the first group of circles, "Your friends were piled together inside the ballerina," then I pointed to the circle with the arrow away from it, "But you got seperated from everyone during this haste, right?"

The ballerina nodded.

I pointed to the axe, "Someone came in with an axe," then moved my finger across the page, "and smashed the animatronics, including your friends."

The ballerina nodded again.

"You found them," I pointed to the final picture, "but since they were destroyed, you contiuned to hide within them until now."

The ballerina bounced up, twinkling with delight and clapping it's little hands. It rushed forward and wrapped it's arms around my fingers, a gentle squeeze that made me feel warm.

I scooped it up in my palms again, "Is that why you want me to fix them? Are you alone? Or do you feel alone at least?"

What really broke my heart was seeing the little creature nod sadly.

"I-I don't know if I can help," I answered honestly, "You see, Funtime Freddy did something terrible to my family and I made a promise that I wouldn't put anyof them back together."

The little ballerina twinkled sadly, rubbing it's eyes as if it suddenly lost all hope in the world.

"Now, now," I grabbed one of my cleaning rags and gave it to the ballerina, who took it graciously and rubbed their eyes with the cloth, "I know it's not something you want to hear, but I need to protect my family."

The minireena jumped down from my hand and picked up it's pencil, drawing the bear again. It wrote "Ha Ha" three times around it's face before drawing another face. It had what looked like pig tails and a mean-looking clown face. It then drew a circle around the second picture before drawing a line through it.

I placed my elbows on the work table, folding my hands over my nose and mouth and studied the pictures again.

Clearly, the minireena wanted me to believe that Funtime Freddy had nothing to do with what happened to my nephew and that the real problem lied with another animatronic that was incased in the mess of parts and shells.

But, who could I believe at this point?


	7. Joy of Creation: Pt 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Updated a few errors found

It took a majority of the day, but I agreed to help the minireena, on the condition that they would help and explain things to the others once they were fixed.

They agreed whole-heartedly, ready to assist in any way they could.

The two of us dug through the tangled mess of robotic parts until we found what looked like the chest of the ballerina. There was a small button on the right side that opened the chest, releasing small parts and bodies of three more little minireenas. My little helper seemed upset and confused about the whole ordeal, though I did what I could to keep them distracted.

I decided to name them "Hope," which means "desire of Fulfillment," and it seemed appropriate for the minireena.

Hope helped by grabbing the tools and small pieces I needed to complete each minireena. Small wirings and gears helped the process a bit more smoothly, but it would take time and patience, which is not what Hope always had.

They would pace across the table top as I worked, stopping here and there with arms crossed over their small chest. They would tap their petite feet on the table before going back to pacing again. 

"Hope," I looked up from my work to eye the little animatronic, "You need to be patiencent. These things take time."

Hope pouted, or I think they did, before sitting down with their arms crossed.

I chuckled, "Look, I'm almost done with your friend here. I need you to find me something special," I took a sheet of paper and drew several shapes together, "I need you to find me three power cores. They'll look like this and probably be as big as your hand."

Hope jumped up, rushing toward the small pile of Minireena pieces and began to dig as I went back to replacing a few small screws within the second Minireena's body. Hope returned a few moments later with all three power cores in her arms. I took one, adjusting a few of the wiring, then flipped the Minireena over. Hope watched as I took my plyers and placed the power core within the little slot in the Minireena's back. I placed the back shell over the wiring and screwed it shut.

I picked the silent Minireena up, turning her over before finding her power switch. A little flip caused the Minireena in my hands to stand, adjust, then the little souless eyes blinked. It seemed frightened at the sight of me, but Hope made it feel much safer.

I watched with interest as the two twinkled at each other on my work table, embracing one another as if they hadn't seen each other in years... and they most likely haven't.

The second minireena, whom I named "Christy," came forward and embraced my oil covered fingers, like how Hope did when she first encountered me.

"Well, you're welcome," I smiled and picked up my cleaning rag and wiped the minireena's cheeks free of oil and grease, "Should we see if we can wake your other friends?"

By the end of the day, Hope and Christy were reunited with their two other friends, Faith and Bryn, and all four were together once again. All four clung to my shirt as I made my way out of the workshop just as the summer sun was setting. 

I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and was ready for supper.

I warmed a few slices of pizza up from the previous night while the Minireenas explored the island in the kitchen, looking all around them.

"Are you four hungry?" I asked.

Hope twinkled at me, shaking her head in a negative.

I hit my head with my hand, "I should've asked if you guys even eat..."

All four twinkled at me, Christy falling over and hitting her hands against the table top lost in complete laughter.

***

Days passed after that; then weeks. The minireenas and I worked day in and day out, repairing the Funtime Animatronics, only taking breaks during the night and the one day for my niece's birthday. They were all wonderful little helpers, climbing into the animatronics to reach parts that I couldn't get to.

The one animatronic they didn't want me to touch was the clown-child. When I had picked up her shell, Hope and the others jumped from the table and onto me before attempting to pull the shell head away from me.

"What's wrong guys?" I asked.

Hope, who was sitting on my left shoulder at the time, pointed to the shell in my hands before shaking her head in a negative.

"You don't want her back?"

The other minireenas twinkled, two of them grabbing at the other, acting out what looked like a fight scene from a film. I blinked in confusion.

"Did she harm you in some way?"

Hope nodded along the other minireenas, all twinkling at the same time. It made me think back to the drawing Hope had did of the clown-doll with the circle and line through it.  _ Did this animatronic, perhaps, have something against the others? _

I decided to leave it alone after that, as the Minireenas were clearly afraid of this one and, no doubt, did I want to play with something that could get me into trouble.

Nearly two months later, as the summer was reaching it's peak, three fully formed animatronics stood side by side in the far back of my workshop.

Funtime Foxy had regained their beautiful white and pink coat with a bright red bow, courtesy of the local craft shop where I could purchase pieces of faux fur to replace the hard plastic that covered their body. They stood five feet - nine inches in height with large triangular ears and long fluffy tail that would twitch, at least from what I gathered from the Minireenas' drawings of the fox.

The ballerina, Ballora as the Minireenas called her, stood in the center of the three full scaled animatronics. She stood a whopping six feet - two inches tall, her face very calm and almost mother-like. The Minireenas often climbed onto her newly-designed tutu that belonged to an old friend, made of real silk and tulle, keeping her company whenever I worked on her.

But my personal favorite was the Funtime Freddy animatronic. Two inches shorter than Ballora, he lost a little weight since removing the compartment from his belly where August had gotten entrapped in. I had replaced the copmartment with a solid belly shield, allowing more room for his wiring and switches to connect. He, too, had regained his white and pink coloring as well as a new black top hat that was a little larger than his original one. Freddy also had, attatched to his right hand, a little blue rabbit puppet, whom the Minireenas called "Bon-Bon." He was about two feet in height, with a pale blue belly and red bowtie.

Currently, all the full-sized animatronics were in what some would call a "sleep-mode." I had attempted to turn Ballora on for the Minireenas in order for them to be reunited with their real master, but there seemed to be a problem with the circuits as sparks of electricity bounced from her before I heard her motor slow to a complete stop.

"I'm sorry guys," I held the four Minireenas in my hands, "I don't know what happened... I thought everything was connected correctly..."

All four twinkled at me, their little hands reaching out and hugging my hands and my face. I could hear their gears clicking under their shells, a calming sensation that seemed to say, "It's alright. Let's try again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, I do have the next chapter completed, but haven't decided if I want to post it tonight or tomorrow...


	8. A Fine Line between Madness and Insanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: fixed a few grammatical errors

The last rays of the July sun beat down as the Minireenas and I left the barn. After trying for several hours to reawaken Ballora, all five of us agreed we needed to rest and look at them with fresh eyes in the morning.

My lips were pressed firmly together, frusteration clear in my eyes as I made my way back into the farmhouse. The heat was getting to me, as well as the sadness of being unsuccessful with the animatronics.

Hope and the others were perched a top my head and shoulders, their little hands rubbing my skin in a calming manner.

"I'm sorry again," I sighed, reaching the door handle, "What if I can't get them to wake up?"

Hope twinkled at me from my right shoulder, one hand tapping under their pointed chin.

"Keep my chin up?" I leaned forward on the island as the minireenas climbed down to the stable surface, "You all still believe in me, huh?"

All four twinkled and twirled before clapping in delight.

_ Ring! Ring! _

I reach over and picked up the phone, "Hello?"

_ "Hello, sister!" _

"Stacy!" I grinned at hearing my sister's voice, "How are you!"

_ "I'm doing well! Hey, listen, I know it's short notice, but mom and dad want to go out to Regal's with us tonight. No kids, all adults and just have supper together." _

Regal's was one of the fine dining restaruants on the other side of town. It was right on the lake shore with the building designed to be an old faire boat from the 1950s, serving everything from seafood to steaks, as well as fine pudding cakes which made anyone's mouth water from the smell. They were also highly expensive, usually anyone who had a doctor in the family could afford to eat there.

"Regal's huh? Whose's paying?"

Stacy laughed over the phone,  _ "Chuck and I can pay for your meal, if you want. I know you just spent a small fortune on some parts from the trash piles last week, though you didn't tell me about that last time I saw you." _

"Sis, I wasn't going to bring money up on Maybelle's special day. Besides, that little music box was an easy fix and was something I knew she would love." 

_ "Oh I know, Ster. I'm just teasing. Believe it or not, she winds it up every night before she goes to bed. She said it helps her sleep." _

"Really?"

_ "Yep, so are you coming?" _

I looked over at the little Minireenas who sat perched on the end of the island, watching me and waiting for an answer.

"I'll see," I answer, "If I'm not there by, say... seven, go on and eat without me."

_ "Alright, We'll see you then." _

I hung up before turning to the Minireenas, "That was my sister. Do you guys think you'll be fine on your own for a few hours?"

Hope nodded eagerly as the others followed suit.

I went into my bedroom and picked up a small hand basket filled with small pillows and cloth pieces, taking it into the kitchen. It had become the Minireenas' make-shift bed, as they were too small for a normal sized bed, never mind the fact that Hope did on some occasions crawl into my bed during the night and sleep on the pillow beside me.

I set the basket on the island for my small animatronic friends, who climbed in with no problem. I pressed kisses on my fingertips before pressing them onto each little cheek and left to prepare for my night out.

***

"So, Ster," Stacy said from across the table, "How's the art pieces going?"

Compared to the silence of Minireenas, I had to readjust my hearing to the loud noises that surrounded me.

Regal's was packed to the brim, soft jazz playing from the speakers as waiters and waitresses moved about on the carpeted flooring, the whole place buzzing with voices and laughter. It felt outof character for me to be in the restaruant, though I had been within these walls on nurmerous occasions. My poor mind had gotten so used to guessing what my little company had to say instead of hearing another person talk, it made me feel out of social practice.

"The art... it's going smoothly, sis," I smiled.

"Is that a joke, or really?" Stacy could strike a nerve when it came to junk art, as she put it. Then again, she never was much of an artist to begin with.

"Stac," Jer and Clara sat next to me on the other side, across from Stacy and her husband, "Sterling has been working hard on repairing a few old toys for an auction coming up, right Ster?"

I grinned in relief, "Yes, all the money collected is going to help local charities around our community."

"So what kind of toys have you come across?" my father asked.

"Oh, a few music boxes like the one I gave to Maybelle for her birthday, a few wind up dolls... mostly vintage stuff that Gerry had found in his mother's old boxes. She had a lot of interesting stuff from the 30s and 40s."

Chuck scoffed, "Honestly, I don't know why you even bother with stuff like that. It's all junk, and should've been left in the trash bin if you ask me."

I narrowed my eyes at my brother-in-law.

Charles, or Chuck as he liked to be called, was a head director in the fashion industry, where my sister, Stacy, had begun to work as an assistant. He wore his ideas on his sleeve and, much of the time, both of us were at odds with each other. I tried to always maintain a decent conversation with the man, though I never understood why my sister would marry him in the first place anyway, but there were times when I needed to stand up for what I did. 

I kept my mouth shut as he continued, "You know it's those righteous hippies out there that are planning to destroy the world. They take in as much as the next person does and refuse to acknowlege their own mistakes."

"Could we please move on to a different topic," Clara grumbled, "My stomach can't handle this."

"I agree," my father turned back to me and my brother, "How's little August doing? He was still a little nervous during Maybelle's party last month. Have the nightmares finally come to a stop?"

"Unfortunetly, no," Clara sighed, "They seemed to have escalated at this point..."

I turned to my brother as he explained, "August has begun to believe that there are animatronic monsters living in our house and they only come out at night. They are four of them in total from what we've gathered; one in his closet, two at his doors, and one under his bed."

"Poor August," I sighed, shaking my head, "I'm so sorry about what happened."

"It's not your fault, sis," Jer shrugged his shoulders, "All kids get nightmares, it's something that we've had to deal with when Abigail was five. We have to deal with them now with Augustine, and we'll have to deal with them when Timmy's a bit older."

"Yeah, but how many kids have been locked inside an animatronic's belly?" Chuck started, pointing his finger at me accusingly, "You don't see my little Maybelle or her brother, Lex, having nightmares about animatronics because we don't go by this crazy lady's house."

"That's enough!" My mother stood from her seat, hatred burning in her eyes. She glared at Chuck, "How dare you insult my child, your sister-in-law! If you can't be decent to my family, young man, then you have no right to be in my prescence or my eldest daughter's."

Chuck shrugged his shoulders before going back to his steak.

Silence filled the table after that.

***

When I pulled into my drive, a part of me was greatful to be home at last. Dinner with my family felt physically draining, especially after Chuck's comments about my art pieces.

It never usually bothered me how some people could only see my creations as "junk art." It, technically, was - primarly because I did go to scrap and junk yards, digging through piles of decay and rust to find pieces to make my creations with. But, now that I had found living animatronics that needed me, I felt like someone had just insult my own children. 

I groaned, leaning back in my seat, closing my eyes. I rubbed the bridge of my nose before going into my passanger's compartment and pulled out a small book.

It was a little book of positivety that Gerry had given me when I first started out. It helped me continue my scrap art through the years, even when I felt I was going nowhere with it. Inside was short quotes that brought positive thoughts to my mind and never ceased to make me smile when I looked through.

_ "You are made for perfection, but you are not yet perfect. You are a masterpiece in the making." _

_ -Archbishop Desmond Tutu _

I closed the little book and placed it back into the compartment before grabbing my purse and headed into the house.

I had left the kitchen light dimmed for the minireenas before I left, not allowing them to be frightened of a dark unknown place. Even though I've had them for a little over three months, they still could be frightened and curious about this new world that surrounded them. I tiptoed into the kitchen to check on them, not wanting to wake them up.

Their basket was still on the table, but there were no sign of any of my little ballerinas in sight.

I felt my heart drop into my stomach, "Hope!? Faith?! Christy!? Bryn?!"

Then, I heard it.

_ "Look B/Bon-B/Bon! I t/think we f/found a f/friend!"  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mothers. Ya gotta love em!  
> Also, is anyone is curious about the Book of Joy, here's a link to it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525534822/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_PS26EbAC1K91Z
> 
> Comments? Kudos?


	9. Funtime Animatronics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have another chapter before I disappear for the weekend.  
> Also, in case people are curious:  
> Funtime Freddy = Funtime  
> Funtime Foxy = Foxy  
> Ballora = Ballora

I felt heavy metal arms lock around my arms, keeping me from struggling and escaping.

"Let me go!" I shouted.

A little blue paw landed on my mouth and my eyes shifted to see the little Bon-Bon puppet sitting on the pink and white arm next to my shoulder.

"Hey there!" the little rabbit squeaked, "Don't go waking the whole house!"

"It's a little late for that," a gruff voice answered.

I was suddenly turned, my legs swinging with force and nearly hitting the animatronic that stood behind me and my captor.

"Hey! Watch it!" Funtime Foxy jumped back, ears swiveling to lay flat behind their head, "You could hurt the poor girl, Funtime! And you know how Ballora is about hurting people!"

"N/Not my f/fault, F/Foxy!" the voice, whom I'm assuming was Funtime Freddy, stuttered, "She c/caught us off/f guard!"

"Oh, shut up you blubbering fool!" the fox growled.

"Foxy!"

Timid steps echoed in as a white and blue ballerina appeared in the entryway to the kitchen, the minireenas atop her petite figure, safe and sound. I let out a sigh of relief at seeing them, a thankful grin crossing my face.

Ballora was speaking again, her hands on her hips, "You're not allowed to talk to Funtime like that! How would you feel if I called you 'a good-for-nothing she-male canine'?"

Funtime Foxy tucked their tail between their legs, pointer fingers tapping each other in regret, "Sorry Ballora, I apologize Funtime."

Ballora came forward and patted the fox on the shoulder, "It's alright, my dear. This is all new to us, however," her eyes fell on my trapped figure, "we need to know what this intruder is doing in this home."

"Intruder?!" I squeaked.

Hope must've recognized me because I heard a familiar twinkle. Ballora's head turned to the minireena as she continued to twinkle in earnest. The animatronic ballerina turned back to me.

"Funtime, let the poor girl go."

"Huh? Why B/Ballora?"

"My minireena just told me that this woman is the owner of this house."

"What a p/party p/pooper!"

"Funtime!"

"Oops!" Funtime Freddy released me, spinning me around so I could get a good look at him as he dusted me off, "Apologies, miss. B/Bon-B/Bon alerted me of a p/presence in the house and I w/wanted to t/take p/precautions."

"Heh, it's alright," I smiled up at the bear, "No harm, no foul."

I felt a familiar weight on my shoulder and found Hope sitting idle, looking up at me with joy in her soulless eyes.

"I'm quite surprised at how my girls have taken to you," Ballora spoke, "Usually they're weary around humans."

"I don't blame them," I answered, moving over and at last turning on some lights so I could see clearly, "After all, poor Hope here was scared to death when I found her."

"Hope?"

"I gave her a name, as she couldn't comunicate to me what her real name was. Hope seemed to fit her perfectly."

Ballora looked at the small minireena in my hands, a small smile crossing her painted lips, "It seems that she hasn't told us everything yet. But there will be time for that later."

She held a dainty hand, "Allow me to introduce us properly, I'm Ballora. This here is Funtime Foxy and Funtime Freddy. The small blue bunny is Bon-Bon."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," I shook the offered hands gently, fearful that I might break something, "I'm Sterling, but you can call me Ster."

"Miss Ster, then," Ballora smiled, "perhaps you can help us, then."

"I'll see what I can do," I answered, always eager to help.

"You see, as we are grateful to you for repairing us, we need to return to our studio. It is very important that we are there to continue to bring joy and happiness to the children we've entertained."

I felt my smile fall. I scratched the back of my head, worry filling my features.

"I know it's not ideal," Ballora continued, "But we must return, please understand that."

"Well, it's not getting you all there that's the problem."

"Oh?" Foxy narrowed their eyes, "Then what is?"

"Well, I hate to break it to you all... but Fazbear Entertainment has been out of business for thirty plus years."

***

I walked back into the sitting room where my animatronic guests had sat down, their circuits and gears whirling with disbelief. I had wanted to leave them alone for a bit, let them understand that they no longer had a home, so to say.

So while I allowed them to process everything, I decided to change from my dinner dress into sweats and a tank top. I grabbed a small cup of decaf before joining them in the sitting room, perching on the foot stool in the center.

"Why didn't your minireenas tell us?" Foxy was asking in a quiet voice to Ballora.

"I'm not sure, Foxy," Ballora was looking at her girls, each one asleep in her arms, "I wonder if they even knew."

"I don't think so," I answered for the sleeping figures, "I only met the minireenas about two months ago, and Hope only asked me to help with repairing you all."

"Except for Circus Baby?" Ballora asked.

"It seems so," I nodded in agreement, "She and the others seemed afraid of this Circus Baby. I have no idea why, though."

"T/They had g/good reason t/to," Funtime Freddy spoke, Bon Bon perched on his shoulder, "We all were..."

I frowned.

Ballora looked at her friends before explaining, "When we were first created, it was just us three, plus Bon-Bon. We loved what we did, still do. We were created to entertain crowds of children and grownups, living by the slogan of the company."

"A place were kids and grown-ups alike can have a little bit of fun?" I asked.

"And pizza!" Bon-Bon squeaked.

"That's right," Ballora smiled, "Those were wonderful times then. But when she came along, everything changed."

Foxy spoke up then, "When Circus Baby was created, terrible accidents began to happen within the underground facility where we were created. Staff members began disappearing as well as computer glitches became common place. Each one of us became afraid of what would become of us should any of us take one step out of line."

"First there were electric shocks, to keep us 'motivated,'" Foxy continued, "Then they added a place called the scooping room."

"What was the scooping room?" I asked, a lump forming in my throat at the thought.

"It was where we went if we 'misbehaved,'" Ballora explained, "There was a large scooper that would come down from the ceiling and, basically, remove our internal software and wiring from our outer shells. It, if you pardon the vision, gutted us like fish."

"Though we were powered off every time we went through it, as well as had our power and memory cores removed before the process," Foxy continued, "We could still feel the pain every time we went through."

"That's horrible! It's inhumane!"

"But that's the thing, Sterling dear," Ballora answered, "We aren't human, so we shouldn't have felt anything."

"But you were real to the kids," I countered, "that makes you real in their eyes."

"I suppose it does," Ballora looked down sadly, "But in the end, we were nothing but scraps."

"How is that you ended up being demolished in the first place?" I asked.

Funtime bit his mechanical lip, "We were all s/sent t/to the s/scooper t/that night... and one of the g/guards was t/there with an axe..."

"He smashed us," Foxy finished for Funtime, "Circus Baby was the first to go, then me, then Funtime and Bon-Bon, then Ballora and the minireenas. It still amazes me how one was able to survive..."

"Hope told me she had gotten seperated for you and found you all in the mess of robotic parts. She stayed hidden within the pile until I brought you here."

"How is it that you found us?" Ballora asked.

"A friend of mine owns what some people call a scrap yard," I explained, "It's a place were old mechnical parts are broken further down for recycling purposes, though I use the metal pieces in my art sculptures. He told me about you guys, and I purchased the whole deal."

"S/So," Funtime looked over at Ballora expectantly, "Does t/that mean we b/belong h/here?"

"That would be up to our hostess, Funtime," Ballora smiled at me, "After all, she's the one who saved and repaired us."

"I want you guys to stay as long as you like," I smiled, "I have plenty of space for the three of you plus me if you would like to remain here. I know it's not the best situation, but-"

"Then it's settled," Ballora clapped her hands, pulling the minareenas out of their sleep, "We'll be staying with Sterling."


	10. Animatronic Family Values

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello aagain! Hope everyone's weekend was pleasant. Have a new chapter to start the week!  
> Also, thank you to everyone who has commented, left kudos, and has read my story in general. It never ceases to make me smile every time I see my numbers increase. Thanks again!

I guided my new guests up the stairway to the upper floor bedrooms. It was already closing in around eleven in the evening, and I figured after all the excitment today, my animatronic guests could use a little shut eye.

I gave Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon the room closest to the stairwell, in case they needed me or Ballora. The ballerina in question received the room in the center of the two bedrooms, large enough for her towering stature and four little ballerina students. Funtime Foxy ended up with the far end bedroom - closest to the bathroom on the upper floor. After getting each one settled in their respected rooms, I headed down the stairs to grab a few spare pillows and blankets to give them some extra comfort.

On the way back up, I found Ballora looking at the photos lining the walls of the upper floor; pictures with memories tied to my brother's wedding, my sister's wedding, my parents, and school photos of my nieces and nephews.

"Are these your family members?" Ballora asked.

"Yes, this is my brother, Jeremiah, and his wife Clara," I pointed to the wedding photo, "My sister, Stacy, and her husband Chuck... my mom, Stella, and my dad, Richard, then my nieces and nephews, Abigail, Augustine, Maybelle, and Lex, with the new baby, Timothy."

"How sweet and lovely," Ballora cooed at the photos, "Are you pretty close with your family?"

"Mostly my brother, his family, and my parents. My sister and her family don't really get along with me well."

"May I ask why?"

I sigh heavily, "Chuck is one of those 'I'm always right and everyone else is wrong' type of guys. I never really did get along with him, even after Maybelle was born. He's also relatively rich and looks down on people who aren't."

"Is your family wealthy, then?"

"We all worked hard to get where we are currently. My father did a lot of saving when he was working so us kids could go to college. My brother finished a doctorate and his wife has a master's degree, and my sister got a free ride through college because of her grades and after-school activities and became an office assistant for a large fashion firm in the next city over. I'm pretty well-known in the area as an artist and get commissioned to help with local charities and city parks across our county."

Ballora nodded, not completely understanding but seemly trying to grasp the idea, "And the kids? Are they happy?"

"Not always, but most of the time," I shrugged, "I miss seeing them every so often."

"Have you ever considered having kids, Ster?"

"Me? No... too much work on my already full plate. Besides, I work with a lot of dangerous materials, I couldn't bare it if one of my own kids got hurt."

"I guess something bad happened to one of your sibilings' children recently, then."

I nodded, "Before repairing you, my little nephew, August, ended up climbing inside Funtime Freddy's belly and got trapped. He's very afraid to go out to the barn with me and his sister when he visits now, and he's been having night terrors as of late."

"Funtime never meant to hurt the boy," Ballora spoke softly, "Neither one of us meant to hurt anyone."

I cocked my brow at the ballerina.

She sighed, admittedly, "After we had our first scooping, some of our animatronic bodies had additional pieces put in place. Funtime's belly was used as a stroage container, but not the way our creators originally thought it was for.

"You see, though we were originally created to entertain, after Circus Baby came into the picture we were recreated to capture."

"Capture? Capture what exactly?"

Ballora looked away, shame covering her doll-like face. I could only guess what she meant by her silence.

"Ballora, you don't need to worry about that anymore," I placed a hand on her shoulder, "When I repaired each of you, I replaced a few questionable features so there would be no accidents following the mishap in my barn. No more capturing is required. I want you guys to be able to entertain again one day, regardless of what you are or how you look."

Ballora perked up at hearing that, pulling me into a big motherly hug.

"I don't know how to thank you, Sterling, for everything you've done for us."

"Heh, don't mention it."

***

Once Ballora was settled for the evening, I closed her door behind me, stopping to find Funtime Foxy spread out on the floor outside their room.

"Having trouble, Foxy?" I chuckled.

"No, bed's just too soft," the animatronic replied, "I'm used to sleeping on the hard ground, and this place is perfect for me."

I chuckled, "Alright, but at least take this blanket and pillow so you don't get cold."

Foxy took both blanket and pillow graciously, tucking the cushion under their head and pulling the blanket around their shoulders.

I knelt down and kissed Foxy's cheek, "Good night, Foxy."

The fox purred in reply as I disappeared down the stairs, dimming the light as I went.

The light in the sitting room illuminated Funtime's hulky figure, the little blue bunny sitting on his lap in comfort.

"Funtime? Bon-Bon? Is everything alright?"

The little rabbit looked up at me before turning to his friend, "Funtime's having trouble sleeping, Miss Ster. We overheard you talking to Ballora about... well, it's bugging him a bit more than usual."

"I n/never meant to hurt him," Funtime's voice began to crack, "You've g/got to b/believe me!"

"Shhh," I came around and wrapped my arms around the bear, "Hey, I know you didn't mean to. Ballora does too. Let's not dwell on what happened, alright?"

The bear nodded, ears drooping downward.

"Now, if you want to come in my room because you're having trouble sleeping, that's fine by me," I held out my hand, which Funtime took graciously, and I brought him into the little bedroom, flicking the lights off in the sitting room and embracing the house in complete darkness.

The six-foot pink and white bear settled himself down into the chair in the far corner of the room, covering himself in blankets.

"Will you be comfortable?" I asked, pulling the blankets back on my own sleeping space.

"I've s/slept in w/worse p/places," Funtime answered, Bon-bon already snuggled in his arms for the night.

"Alright," I answered, lowering the light for it to be dim enough for sleep but plenty of light to keep nightmares away, "Get some sleep, big guy. We'll be busy in the morning."

I saw the outline of him nod slowly before I curled into myself, allowing sleep to take me at last.


	11. Teaching and Learning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning all! Have another chapter to start the day!  
> Also, there may be a delay in chapter posts due to ideas running a tad short. I will say we are winding down to the end of the story and once I finish the next couple chapters, I may post everything at once.  
> Thanks again for everything, please enjoy!

The early morning sun was peeking through my silk curtians when I felt myself slowly wake. I felt a heavy unfamiliar weight around me and could see a blurry image of a familiar minireena and a blue bunny puppet. Funtime must've been uncomfortable in the chair, which is probably why I felt the heavy weight on top of me.

I wiggled out of his grip slowly, as not to wake the sleeping bear, and sat up stretching. A small twinkle alerted me of Hope's rising as she, too, sat up from pillow next to me and stretched her arms above her head.

"Heh, good morning Hope," I whispered.

The little minireena waved at me before I pulled the sheets back, swinging my legs off the bed and standing, stretching and cracking my back. Hope was scooped up into my hands before the two of us tiptoed out of the bedroom, still not wanting to disturb Funtime or Bon. In all honesty, I still didn't know how mad the animatronics could get, and I didn't want to find out.

I could hear light snoring from the top of the stairs, meaning that Foxy was still knocked out and Ballora most likely was too. Hope had found her way from my hands to my shoulder, perched in her favorite spot as I slowly made my way to the kitchen.

My mug was filled to the brim and I was taking my first sip when I heard a light clanking, like something was dragging something across the floor.

I peered around the corner as Bon-Bon made his appearence, swinging his body forward and hopping from one spot to the next.

"Oh! Good moorning, Miss Ster!" the little animatronic waved when he noticed me.

"Good morning, Bon. Do you need help?"

"Well, that would be greatly appreciated. It's hard to move without legs, you know."

"I don't," I chuckled, setting my coffee cup down before going over and picking up the small animatronic puppet.

Bon-Bon was relatively light weight, considering he was about the size of a large plush toy and filled with metal pieces, wiring, and his own personal power core. Setting him on the island counter, the bunny seemed content to stay where he was and watch as I moved about, making breakfast and drinking coffee.

"Did you want anything?" I asked, "Or do you not eat like the minireenas?"

"Oh, no, I'm good," Bon answered in his squeaky voice, "We only eat on special occasions."

"Oh?" I turned my attention to the rabbit, pulling my fried egg off the burner, "And when are those days?"

"During parties, normally," Bon replied, "Sometime Funtime and I would get a slice of birthday cake as a 'thank you' from the families who we visited... though there was that one time when Funtime started stuttering during his performance and the birthday girl wasn't happy about it..."

I could only imagine what happened after.

"Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you about that."

"About what?"

"Funtime Freddy's stutter," I leaned forward onto the counter top, "From his design, there shouldn't be a problem with the location of his voice box nor any errors in the wiring from said voice box to his speaker on his chest. But, when he talks, he struggles."

Bon tapped his paws together, "Well, remember how we mentioned the scooper to you last night?"

When I nodded, Bon continued, "It's that, well... Funtime and I are the ones who were almost always sent to the scooper."

"What?! Why?"

"When we were first created," Bon explained, "our act was a simple one. We just had to make the kids laugh and smile. As long as we were making them have a good time, we didn't have anything to worry about. When Circus Baby came along, our acts weren't the greatest following her performances. Though she got sent to the scooper every night, we went in if we screwed up even once."

The little blue rabbit rubbed his paws together, "It took the worse out of ol' Funtime. He always took the brunt of the pain from the scooper. There was a time when the company couldn't use him because his voice was completely gone. I never saw him so scared in my life, he would whimper after everyone left for the night and I would have to stay up with him to keep him calm enough in order for the others to sleep in peace."

"But obviously he regained it back," I tried to reason.

"Perhaps," Bon shrugged, "but since he got his voice back, he's always stuttered. He may not look bothered by it, but I know deep down that it's nerve-racking for him. Funtime's alway been a perfectionist since the creation of Circus Baby, so when one thing is out of line, he loses it. And it's not always the prettiest thing to see, either."

I smiled grimly. I knew a few people who were like that, everything had a place and if one thing was out of place, they made it seem like thier world was about to end. I tried to respect those people and the rules they had in place within their homes, but it wasn't always easy.

I wanted to ask him more about the scooper, but decided against it. 

Obviously, the scooper room was a place that all of my animatronic guests feared, and must've cause a lot of pain for everyone. It might've been even worse than having to put up with Circus Baby, who was still out of the picture.

Bon-Bon had looked down, sadness filling his features.

I wrapped my hand him, my fingers pressing into the soft fur of his back, "Hey, it's okay, Bon. You are all safe here, I'm not going to let anything happen to you, or Funtime, Foxy, or even Ballora."

His ears perked up, "Really, Miss Ster?"

"I promise," I shook his little paw as a deal.

***

As the morning light slowly turned grey, the rest of the house began to stir with alertness.

Ballora was the first one to awaken and greet me in the kitchen, Foxy following only a few minutes later. Funtime was a bit of a struggle, but we eventually heard his heavy footsteps thumping across the floor and stopping outside the kitchen entryway.

The minireenas and Bon had spread themselves all over the counter while the others sat in resptected seating, watching as I dined on eggs and hash browns. It felt very off having guests who chose not to eat, as their bodies didn't require food like mine did.

When I made the comment about it, Foxy belted out a choked laughter, "Oh, we eat alright, just not what you would identify as normal food."

"Meaning birthday cake and ice cream?" I asked, an eye brow raised.

"Don't f/forget the p/pizza!" Funtime grinned.

We all had a laugh at that.

Once I finished eating, I decided to take my little group back out to the barn. I needed to take a look at each of them to determine if they were stablized.

"Why do you want to make sure of that?" Ballora asked, following close behind me as I led them.

"I just want to make sure there are no glitches in your systems," I answered, opening the unlocked barn door, "It's a precaution on my end as well to make sure you're all 'healthy.' It's just a check up, if you think about it."

Ballora was first. She perched upon the work table, opening her outer shells for me as I pulled my heavy work gloves and goggles on, poking and prodding inside her before determining she was 'in the clear.'

While I worked on Foxy next, I asked them how they had gotten out of the barn and knew how to get into my house.

"We may not have been alive, dear," Ballora chuckled softly, "but we were concious of everything going on around us. I remember coming back, hearing your voice like you were speaking to me. I didn't know who you were, but I could sense that you were good, which was something I haven't felt in a long time."

"It's like how we were when we were in the scooper room," Foxy piped up, their endoskeleton moving cautiously as to not break anything that was just repaired, "We could also feel everything. I came to when I felt something zap inside of me. A little pulse that was both frightening and soothing all at the same time."

"Apologies for that one," I lifted my goggles, holding up my sparker, "I used this guy to check the electrical system within you to make sure I didn't need to replace any wiring that was already attached to you."

"H/Heck, it w/was p/probably b/better than the electrical s/shock the company used t/to give us," Funtime answered.

"It was," Foxy grinned mischeviously as thier face plates reconnected, "Want to try it, Funtime?"

Funtime's green eyes widened at the sight of the small shocker in my hands. I noticed his plates begin to shake as he seemingly shrank into himself.

"Hey, Funtime," Bon patted his friend on the shoulder, "Miss Ster isn't going to use that on you."

"T/T/That's/s/s w/what t/t/they s/s/said t/t/the las/s/st t/t/time," Funtime's stuttering got even worse.

I set the device aside, pulling my gloves and goggles off. I approached Funtime slowly, not wanting to scare him than he already was.

"Hey, it's okay," I reached out slowly, "I made a promise I wasn't going to hurt you or let anything bad happen to you."

Funtime looked at his hand puppet with uncertianty. When Bon-Bon nodded, I pressed my hands to Funtime's cheeks, digging my hands into his soft fur and scratching him gently. We watched as his eyes closed and his foot began to thump against the wooden floor, clearly enjoying himself at getting petted.

Ballora crossed her arms, shaking her head, "No idea he could do that."

Funtime let out an exasperated purr before I released him, the bear nearly tumbling over from how relaxed he had become.

"Oops," he spoke, "S/S/Sorry, Miss/s S/Sterling."

"No apologies needed, Funtime," I answered, quite content to have him slightly back to normal.


	12. Hate is a Strong Word

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh, so I did manage to make my edits for this chapter on a timely manner. That's a shocker!   
> Please enjoy!

By the afternoon, all the animatronics were healthy - at least by computer standards. 

No a single issue was found in any of them from my search and I deemed everyone stable enough to live within the house, though I probably would have let them even if there was a bug in them. After all, they were thirty plus years old.

Each one decided, upon returning to the house, to take their own tour of the place.

But I had an alternate reasoning to get them seperated.

I had cornered Foxy in the sitting room, indicating to them that I wanted to speak privately.

"Foxy," I spoke softly, "I need a little help with something."

"Sure, Ster," the fox's tail swished in excitement, "How may I be of service?"

"I want to ask you about your experiences inside the rental facility you three lived in," I answered, "There are some things that I don't know about, but probably should, and the others seem to want to keep me in the dark about everything."

"Well, not everything, Ster," Foxy reasoned, "I think we've managed to tell you a lot more than we would have - given our circumstances and all."

"True," I pressed again, "But I want to know about Circus Baby. Why are you so afraid of her? She doesn't seem that bad..."

Foxy let out a low growl. At first, I took it to mean that he was irritated about the whole ordeal. However, they sat down on the sofa, indicating for me to sit across from them. As I did, Foxy began;

"We all hate Baby for a good reason. Though hate is a strong word, we use it to our pleasure because of everything she has put us through."

"Think of it like this," the pink and white fox explained, "It's you, your brother, and your sister, right? If your mother brought in another child, whom had no connection to anyone else in the family, and made them their top priority over everything else, what would you think?"

"I would think myself as worthless, I guess. Maybe even unwanted."

"Precisely. We felt we were betrayed by the company when they brought in Circus Baby and recreated our whole underground home to fit her design specifically. 'Circus Baby's Eporium' is what they called us, nothing but a bunch of rentals that were created around the idea of a circus. Hardly anyone wanted one of us. All they wanted was Circus Baby and her music. No more magic tricks, no more laughs, no more dancing... it broke each of us in a different way.

"Then, we each heard something. A voice that told us that we could never escape the shadows, nor would we ever bring joy to the world again."

Foxy inhaled before rubbing their snout, "We realized that there was something in our wiring, our very frames, that could easily switch us over to the monsters that gave people night terrors. A snap of my jaws could kill a child, a trick of the light and a child would be encased in the belly of a bear... a simple sound and there'd be blood.

"We had no control of what it was that lived inside us. No matter how many times we went through the scooper, it never left. It still remains a part of us, even today."

"But I haven't seen that switch," I answered, "not yet at least."

"That's because Baby was never built," Foxy explained, "Before we were destroyed, Ballora's minireenas did a bit of digging into their mistress and discovered a code in her system that wasn't there before Circus Baby came to life. We each have the same unknown coding, which in turn is connected directly Circus Baby."

"How is that even possible? When I went through your systems, each one of your coding didn't seem glitched. At least, there's wasn't anything out of the ordinary that my software detected."

"It wouldn't have been, even by what you call 'modern technology,'" Foxy replied, "The glitch is so suddle that even new technology can't trace it. And even if you were looking for it, the glitch seems to have a life of it's own. Even so, there was one individual who managed to remove most of the glitch from us, but he was the same man who destroyed us in the end."

"Did removing most of the glitched software have any effect?"

"I'm... unsure. At the time, we were so focuesed on trying not to switch over to that other side that I doubt any of us noticed any changes. We were so focused that we even decided to confront Circus Baby about it."

I felt my fingernails dig into my jeans. Just imagining a small group of children's entertainment animatronics confronting something that was not what they seemed to be made my skin crawl, "And?"

Foxy's ears landed flat to the back of thier skull, the snout filled with sharp teeth snarled softly at the thought, "She was nothing more than a monster under that skin. She didn't care about what the company wanted nor about how many children who would smile at the sight of us. All she thought about was how to destroy the happiness of a little one, how to turn a day of light into something so dark that no one would recognize it as a day of joy."

Foxy's eyes turned toward me, the purple pupils glowing with hatrid, "That's why we hate Circus Baby, and why we fear her. No doubt that if she were to be rebuilt, her control over all of us would be unstoppable. No one would be able to keep us from the death we bring if she was brought to life."

"And the scooper?" I asked, still curious.

"The scooper was supposed to be a way to contain her," Foxy explained, "If any one of us stepped out of line, they assumed that Baby had thrown us for a loop. They knew about the glitched coding, but never did anything to remove it from our systems completely... other than that one man who worked in maintainence."

My head fell in my hands. A glitch in the system was causing the funtime animatronics pain every day, always wondering when the next attack would happen and who the victim would be.

"Should I even ask the amount of times you ended up being in the scooper?" I asked then.

"I think you already know the answer to that," Foxy sighed.

"I'm assuming Ballora and you rarely visited."

"Ballora, yes. Me, no. After Circus Baby, who went in every day, Funtime and Bon were next. I believe they sent them in every week, and the only week he didn't visit was during the time he had no voice. It was frightening to all of us, more so for him."

"Bon told me about that."

Foxy nodded, "Then, it was me. I visited the scooper about once a month, only because of my arm. It stuck to my side during performances on some occasions, but it was enough cause for me to be sent away. Then Ballora, who went in about once every three months."

"Why so rare for Ballora?"

"Because of her popularity. She still was a ballerina, after all, and lots of little girls loved ballerinas. Ballora rarely went because she had less mishaps as well as retained a sturdy figure, unlike Funtime and I, who are just talking animals."

"That's not true," I frowned, "You both mean something to someone. Maybe you made less and less appearences in the past, but you both touched a lot of children's hearts with your tricks and jokes. You should both be proud of how far you've come."

"Perhaps," Foxy replied, "but that still doesn't change the fact that we are now forgotten, or would rather be forgotten, by the world in which we find ourselves in."

And for the first time, I couldn't argue because I knew Foxy was right.


	13. The Problem with Surprises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good day, lovely readers! Have a new chapter to start the day!

As the July heat gradually moved into August, life in my little farm house changed dramatically due to the arrival of my new housemates. Of course each one was curious about the outside world and what I did in every day life, but the reality of our situation was not the most ideal.

Most of the time, when not in barn working on new creations, I took the time to study each of the animatronics. I needed to know more about them; how they moved, thought, talked, and, on special occasions, ate.

The first time I actually saw one of them eating was when I had come in for lunch, Funtime and Bon-Bon following right behind. Ballora had placed a small bowl of mixed fruit on the island counter top, the Minireenas sitting around the edges of the bowl with black berries, grapes, and blueberriesin their metallic hands.

"What's going on in here?" I asked, hanging up my work apron by the door.

"The girls needed a small bite , I hope you don't mind," Ballora explained.

"I thought you guys didn't need to eat. At least, not unless it was a special occasion, like a party or something."

"Normally," Ballora agreed, "but it's different now, as we can no longer entertain the same way we used to. Thus, we must make adjustments to fit our needs."

"M/Maybe," Funtime pointed out, "B/But s/since S/Sterling has n/nieces and n/nephews, p/perhaps we can entertain again one d/day."

I couldn't deny nor agree to what Funtime had to say.

My family still was upset about the whole ordeal with Augustine being trapped in Funtime's old belly, which I had broken down and used as a portion on my new art piece. From my understanding, August still was having night terrors involving animatronics sitting outside his door ways and under his bed, though it seemed Jeremiah and Clara had gotten better descriptions of said animatronics - and they looked nothing like the Funtimes which I was thankful for. 

But I knew that as long as Augustine continued to be afraid, anything in relation to robotics wouldn't be allowed near him. Unfortunately, given this new situation I found myself in, I would have to make a choice should anyone find out that the animatronics were, indeed, alive and moving.

***

September came as August quickly fled for the year.

When I awoke that morning, something in my body was telling me that things were not going to be pleasent. 

It was something that ran in my family, like a genetic, that always alerted us if something bad was going to happen. Symptoms of a sore neck and a pain at the base of my spine, like someone had thrown a rock at me. My hands were also shaking, a sign that whatever was going to happen today was going to be really bad.

Ballora must've noticed because of my struggles to pour a cup of coffee as well as cook something halfway decent instead of burning it. She took the pot and the cup from my struggling grasp and poured it for me, making me sit at the island while she took up the frying pan and eggs.

"Are you sure you're alright?" the ballerina asked, placing my food filled plate in front of me, "You look awful this morning and are shaking like a leaf."

"Just struggling a bit this morning," I answered, taking a bite, "I do have bad mornings sometimes, too."

The ballerina nodded, allowing the subject to drop.

Following breakfast, I took Bon-Bon with me out to the barn. 

The small animatronic was continously struggling with moving of his own free will, as he was used to being attached to Funtime every day for the last thirty years. I gave him and Funtime the option of providing Bon with his own set of legs and feet, something he could be attached to in case he wished to move on his own. If they chose the option, I would also provide Funtime an additional hand to remove and replace as needed. I was pleasently surprised when both agreed, as it would give them both a little bit more freedom.

Bon sat before me on a little metal shelving, watching as I began the steady work of creating a set of legs for the rabbit.

We couldn't have been in the barn for more than an hour when Funtime Foxy threw the barn doors open, purple eyes wide with fear and fur bristling.

"Foxy?! What's going on?" I was alarmed by their state of fear.

"Sterling! There's some strange cars pulling into the drive!" Foxy barked, "There's people and kids coming up to the house!"

"Hold on, hold on," I tried to calm the panicing animatronic, "Where is Ballora and Funtime?"

"They went into the basement when I told them what I saw," Foxy explained.

"Alright, come with me and we'll get you and Bon down there until whatever's going on passes."

I took both animatronics up to the house, locking the work barn behind me before getting everyone settled. Funtime was cowering in the far back corner when I returned Bon to him, scratching behind his ears for comfort. Ballora stood at the base of the stairs, each of the Minireenas perched on her shouldersas they waited.

"What do you think Foxy saw?" she asked as I headed up the stairs.

"I'm not sure," I answered, but I'll go see and be back to let you know as soon as I'm able."

"Take Hope then," Ballora scooped the minireena from her shoulder, offering her to me, "ust as a precaution."

I nodded, taking the little animatronic from the ballerina.

***

It was no surprise there was pounding on my front door by the time I reached the main entrance. The pounding increased as I came forward, so hard that I thought the door was going to break off it's hinges.

"Hold your horses, I'm coming!" I shouted, throwing the locks away and pulling the door open.

"Happy Birthday!" shouts came from the front steps as my brother, sister, and their families stood in a large group with my in the front, holdig a large chocolate covered cake. Gerry was also there, hold a large box filled with wrapped gifts in multi-colored paper.

I was so shocked I could only stutter, "W-What?"

"Sterling, it's your birthday today," my mom was grinning from ear to ear, "Did you forget?"

I did! I honestly forgot about one of the few days of the year that Everyone came to the old farmhouse for a party besides for a national holiday. My hands flew to my face, clearly embarressed by the whole ordeal.

Gerry let out a great belly laugh, "Well, it seems we have our answer folks! Don't worry, Ster, it happens to the best of us."

"Still," I smiled sheepishly, "how embaressing..."

"All is forgiven!" my father grinned, pulling me into a big bear hug, "Now let's go in and enjoy a slice of cake and gifts!"

_ Come in...  _ Come in?!

I jerked away, which was very unnatural. My family looked at me, worry crossing their features.

"Uh... sure! Just give me one moment," I smiled, leaving the door open and turning around, running toward the kitchen.

I picked up Hope, and placed her by the stairway, "Let them know my family is here and not to come up until I say so, please?"

Hope twinkled in delight, hopping down the stairs.

"Sterling, honey?"

I stood, shutting the basement door with a loud  _ slam! _ , facing my mother with a sheepish grin, "Yes?"

She looked at me up and down, concern still on her features, "Honey, is everything alright? You seem out of sorts today."

"Out of sorts? Me? No!" I answered a little too enthuistically, "Just, uh, was busy today since I forgot that I was turning thirty today."

"Did we catch you at a bad time?" Clara looked over at Jer, "I told you we should've called her before showing up."

"But that would've ruined the surprise, momma!" Augustine piped up, his eyes wide with glee, "Isn't that was a surprise party is?"

"Surprise... party?" I could feel my eye twitch at the sudden realization that my poor animatronic friends could be stuck in the basement for a while.


	14. Disruptions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, which is why I decided to post two today.  
> Please enjoy!

"Hey Ster, you doing alright?" Gerry had asked after pulling me aside, "You look like you're about to crack girl."

Things were not getting any better since the rememberance of my birthday as well as the arrival of my close family members plus Gerry.

Not only was I attempting to keep anyone from going into the basement, I was also trying to put on a face to keep everyone at ease, though it wasn't easy with the absurbity of the requests I was making.

First, I had begged Jeremiah to keep the lights on when it was time tolight the candles of the cake. He brushed it aside as humor, thinking that I thought someone was going to pull a prank in the dark, which happened quite a bit during our childhood. Then, mom and dad were trying to get me to talk about my newest creation, as the counter top had been covered with parts and pieces from the repairs I had been making on Foxy after he told me about the glitch in their systems. 

Now, it was everyone asking if I was okay.

"Yes, absolutely! Fine as frogs hair!" I grinned, trying to keep a calm expression.

"But, frogs don't have hair," August pointed out.

"It's just an expression," Gerry told the young boy, "A very old one at that."

Now, Gerry had me cornered in the kitchen, my hands rubbing at my temples while he watched on in concern.

"Seriously, I'm fine," I answered, "Just a bit overwhelmed by everything."

"Well, I suppose with, what, twelve people showing up to your home unexpectantly, that would be quite overwhelming."

_ 'You don't know the half of it...'  _ I wanted to say.

Gerry continued, "Look, relax Ster. It's just us, there's nothing to worry about. I always used to tell you that sometimes you need to loosen your screws a little."

"That was when you were teaching me how to put pieces together," I grumbled.

He let out another comforting hearty laugh, "Still, darling, loosen up. Smile! It's your special day after all."

It was... but how much longer was I going to have to keep up this charade?

***

When I managed to pull myself from the kitchen and into the living room, Abigail came running to me, a wild grin across her face.

"Auntie Ster! Look what I found!"

When I looked down at her hands, I discovered that she had found one of the minireenas. Thankfully, it was Hope - who was the same minireena I had found in Abigail's bed the last time she visited here.

"Oh Abby," I gently took Hope from her hands, "Where did you find her?"

"She was on the shelf by the tv with three others!"

I looked up toward the tv, but saw no sign of the others. I looked down at Hope, who remained perfectly still.

"What do we have here?" My mom popped up behind me, making me jump slightly.

"Oh Sterling! A little wind-up ballerina!" Clara came over, looking at Hope with bright eyes.

"She's quite darling, sis," Stacy brought Maybelle over, both looking at the minireena, "Very interesting."

"What's wrong with it's face?"

"What music does it play to?"

"How did you ever create such a thing?"

"Hold on, hold on!" I held up my hand that wasn't holding Hope, getting everyone to step back a few feet, "One thing at a time! Please!"

Everyone silenced, thankfully.

"Alright," I gently handled Hope like I always did when it came to the minireenas, "This is Hope. She's my... little helper, if you will. I found her in that scrap mess that Gerry gave me a few months ago."

"The animatronic scrap pile?" Jer asked, suddenly concerned.

"Yes," I answered, "Hope helps me with small repairs, reaching spaces my hands normally can't reach. She also does perform from time to time, if you want to see."

The small crowd smiled, nodding and agreeing.

I looked down at Hope, "Hope, do you want to show them what you do?"

I was pleasently surprised when she stood up, shifted her small body, and twirled in my hands. Abigail and Maybelle's jaw dropped in surprise while Clara and Stacy cooed at the little ballerina. Gerry, my dad, and Jer let out small chuckles while my mom, Lex, and Augustine watched intently.

Hope moved across my hands, ever so lightly and quietly. When she was done with her small routine, she dropped low, her little white tutu spreading across her legs.

A small applaud came from the group as I placed Hope on my shoulder, who twinkled.

"Did she just... twinkle?" Jeremiah asked.

"Is she part fairy?" Maybelle asked hopefully.

Then, I got an idea. If there was I way I could get away in order to check on the animitronics down stairs, this might be my only chance.

"Actually," I looked down at the minireena, "Hope just spoke to me."

"She can speak?" Abigail asked.

"Oh, yes," I smiled, "You see, and please forgive me for this Jer, Hope has three other sisters whom rely on her to help them with this new world. She got sperated when you found them, Abigail. She would like to be returned to her sisters."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Hope!" Abigail addressed the minireena, "I just got so excited that I had to show Auntie Sterling. I never meant to take you from your family!"

"It's alright," I smiled, "Could you help me find her sisters?"

When Abigail nodded eagerly, Augustine stepped up, "I do too!"

"Me too!" Maybelle said.

When the three kids ran off to where Abigail last saw them, Jeremiah turned to me, "Are they the same size as... Hope?"

"Yes, they all look the same too," I answered, stiffening.

"They... won't cause any danger to the kids?"

"As far as I'm concern, these little ballerinas have mechanical hearts of gold."

Then my brother smiled, "How can we help search for them?"

I smiled, "Just look for something small and doll-like. They might be afraid, which is why they probably are hiding. If you see one, let me know and I'll pick them up."

Jeremiah nodded, indicating for the rest of the family to spread out and search the house.

Before I could head to the basement, Hope tugged on my hair.

"What's wrong?"

She pointed upward.

Above us, Funtime Foxy had their claws in the ceiling and their maw of sharp teeth was open.


	15. Discoveries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning! A bit of a ride during the last chapter, huh?  
> I'm not usually one to keep you in suspense, so have another chapter!  
> Also, I'm going to try and finish the story over the weekend, so you might be blasted with chapters the next couple of days as we're so close to the end.  
> Thank you everyone for your comments and kudos! Please enjoy!

"Foxy!" I whispered angrily.

But the fox didn't respond. Their head twitched erratically, their eyes a deep red - unlike the normally calm violet. They seemed to be in a trance of some sort, making me suddenly realize why the minireenas were upstairs to begin with.

The animatronics' glitch was still active, even though Circus Baby was still out in the barn as a pile of scraps.

Foxy twitched again at us, Hope clinging to the chunk of hair she used to get my attention.

"Hey, Ster!"

The fox's and my attention turned to my brother as he entered the room, unaware of the much larger animatronic above our heads.

"Have you checked the basement yet?"

"Uh..." movement caught my eye as Foxy crawled silently across the ceiling, ruby eyes focused on my brother.

"Ster? Everything alright?"

"Yes, um... I think another place to check would be the front porch," I spoke quickly, "They may be hiding in the shadows out there. I'll go check the basement."

My brother nodded, heading out and away from Foxy's open jaws. 

Hope twinkled angrily at the fox as I whistled loudly. Foxy's eyes shifted back to normal violet, shaking their head. Their eyes widened at the discovery of where they were, without any knowledge of how they got there.

"Sterling?" the fox whimpered softly, ears pressing flat against their head, "What happened?"

"Your glitch caused you to come upstairs," I whispered, "You looked like you were going to take a chunk out of my brother had I not sent him elsewhere."

"I'm so sorry," Foxy murmured, "I didn't mean-"

"No time for apologies now, Foxy," I answered, "Someone could come by any minute! Can you climb over to the window and duck behind the curtians?"

"I'll try, I still have no idea how I was able to get up here, though." 

I watched with caution as Foxy slowly made their way toward me, gripping the ceiling to the best of their ability as they moved. I held my breath as they reached the wall, taking their time to scale down like Spider-man from the old Marvel comics. When the floor was within reach, Foxy let their legs fall back, landing on the wooden floor with a soft  _ thump! _

I let out a deep sigh of relief, rushing forward and embracing the animatronic fox in a hug, happy to have them back to normal.

"Sterling?"

Without any warning, I shoved the fox up against the window and pulled the curtains over them, turning quickly to face Stacy as she entered the room.

"Hey, I was wondering if your bedroom might be place to check? Me and Chuck have checked the guest rooms upstairs."

"Jer already checked, and I think the kids have gone to look out around the barn, perhaps you could check there?" I asked.

"Sure thing!" Stacy smiled and disappeared.

Foxy poked their head out, "Ouch! What the streamers was that about?"

"Sorry, Foxy," I sighed, "I have to keep you out of sight, at least for a while. Where's Ballora and Funtime?"

"Ballora I remember seeing disappearing into the closet and Funtime-"

"DAD! DADDY! THE MONSTER FROM MY BEDROOM IS HERE IN AUNT STERLING'S KITCHEN!!"

I threw the curtians shut over Foxy, already knowing where Funtime must've been hiding.

I raced to the kitchen, followed by Jeremiah. Funtime was crouched behind the island, his overly large pink and white body peaking out from the far end. Augustine was closest to us by the entryway, sitting on his butt and eyes filled with tears as he began to cry in fear.

"August?! August!" I came forward, picking up my nephew and hugging him, "Are you alright? What happened?!"

August could only hiccup and sniffle, ducking his body close to mine in order to be completely hidden from Funtime as he peered around the corner. I could hear Bon-Bon talking to him softly, no doubt comforting the animatronic bear as he looked between me, my nephew, and Bon.

"Hey, it's ok," I tried comforting Augustine, "He's not going to hurt you."

"B-But he did the last time!" August hiccuped, crying out again as he buried his face into my neck.

I looked up as Jer entered the kitchen, the others appearing in the entry way, gasping at the sight of August in my arms and Funtime crouched no more than five feet away from us. When I handed Jeremiah his son, his face turned dark, looking upon the bear with hate.

"I can explain."

"I think you better, Sterling," Jeremiah set August on the ground before standing with his arms crossed over his chest in front August and the rest of our family.

I turned, indicating for Funtime to come closer to me. The bear, who was clearly afraid to move in fear of repercussions from my brother, moved forward slowly until he stood behind me. I took his hand, giving it a gentle sqeeze, "Shortly after August's incident, I was approached by this little ballerina," I indicated to Hope, who was still perched on my shoulder, "She, somehow, survived the distruction of the Funtime animatronics and wanted to be reunited with them. They all thought that Fazbear Entertainment was still in business and wanted to return to their home.

"When I told them about the business being gone, I opened my home to them."

"Wait," my father held up his hand, "who's them?"

I sighed inwardly, "Foxy! Ballora! You can come on out!"

My sister gasped as the pink and white fox poked it's head out from the heavy drapes and Gerry was equally surprised to see Ballora peer around the corner from behind the closet door, the other three minireenas perched on her shoulders. I indicated from them to come closer to me and Funtime. Both moved quickly, surprising quiet in the still silent and anger-filled room.

"Everyone, these are the Funtime animatronics. Ballora, Funtime Foxy, and Funtime Freddy have been with me since the beginning of July," I introduced them once they were safe behind me. The animatronics bowed and curtsied, showing as much respect as they could to my family.

Jeremiah continued to glare at them while Clara stepped forward cautiously, "Do... Does Funtime Freddy know about what he did to my son?"

"He does, and he never meant for it to happen," I replied as Funtime nodded, fear still in his green eyes.

"Never meant for it to happen?" my brother growled, "He could've killed our boy! And you had the audacity to rebuild him regardless of the fact!"

"Jeremiah!" Clara shot at him, "You don't know that!"

"What I heard and saw was enough," Jermiah's eyes shot daggers at me, "How could you do this?"

Ballora took a step forward, her eyes narrowing at my brother as she spoke, "Sir, please understand that your sister was just trying to help us. You do not understand our story well enough to pass judgement on any of us, most especially on Funtime."

My brother was at a shock that the animatronic spoke, and in perfectly good English too. In fact, everyone was shocked to know that they could speak.

"Regardless," Chuck now stepped forward, surprising myself and my brother, "the animatronic bear still caused emotional trauma to a child. How can you explain his behavior for him? You say he never meant for it to happen, but how did it happen when we know for a fact that Abigail also heard the bear speak."

Ballora looked over at me, uncertianty covering her features.

I held up my hand, "If you would listen to what I have to say..."

"No, I'm done listening to you Sterling," Jeremiah looked at the bear, "Why did you do it?"

Funtime looked at all of us as I nodded toward him, "Tell him what you told me, Funtime."

The bear nodded, trying to focus on speaking clearly, "I/I/I h/have a g/g/glitch/ch... i/i/it c/c/c/caus/s/ses p/problems/s within m/m/my b/b/body th/that I c/c/c/can't c/c/control."

"Are you telling me that a malfunction caused you to tell my son to crawl into your belly to get candy?"

"Y/y/yes, s/s/sir," Funtime stuttered, "I/I/I n/n/never m/meant t/to h/hurt A/Augus/st..."

"I don't believe you."

Funtime shrank back, hiding behind Foxy as my brother raged, "You say you never meant to hurt anyone, but look at all the problems you've caused this world! You're all the reason why the company shut down in the first place and why you don't have a home anymore. My sister should've left you in the scrap yard where Gerry found you!"

"Alright, I've had enough of this!" my voice boomed across the room, silencing my bother from any more arguments.

I stood in front of my animatronics, anger burning beneath my skin, "If you hate the animatronics so much, then you can leave my house. You are all guests here and I will not tolerate any more hatred toward them. If you choose to stay, you will treat them and myself as you would if they were normal people."

I watched as the words sunk in.

"Then you've made your choice," my brother turned to his wife and kids, "Come on, the safety of my family is more important than the relationship with my sister."

I watched them leave, my sister and her family following behind. My parents looked at me, I could feel the disappointment burning from them before watching them follow my brother and sister.

All that left was Gerry.

I dropped my arms to my sides as he came forward, "Are you really willing to sacrifice your family relationship to protect a few old robotics?"

I scratched my forehead, "I don't want to, but what choice do I have? I refused to destroy them and leave them behind like everyone else did."

Gerry nodded silently, his heavy hand coming on my shoulder. No words were spoken as I watched as my final guest moved away from me and vanished out the open front door.


	16. Repercussions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning guys! I have a little surprise for you!  
> I have completed the entire story and will be posting the rest of chapters over the next couple of days!  
> I do need to go over a few odds and ends in the recently finished ones, but you should have a updated and fully completed version by the end of Monday! With that being said, please enjoy this chapter and the next on me ;)

I was putting the few slices of birthday cake in the fridge later that day when Funtime appeared around the corner, Bon-Bon nowhere to be seen.

"S/Ster?"

I turned to him, and smiled, "Yes, Funtime?"

"I w/w/wanted t/to apologize f/for the inconvience th/that/t h/h/happened this m/morning."

I frowned at him in confusion, "What? What do you mean? You know that it wasn't your fault."

"B/B/But it w/was," Funtime growled, "W/We sh/sh/should have s/stayed in the b/bas/sement when you t/t/told us/s/s t/to."

"You had no control over what happened. I know about your condition and know that you all do switch over to that other side from time to time, but I don't blame you for what happened."

Funtime looked down as Ballora's light footsteps came around. She gently set a pale hand on the bear's shoulder before she turned to me.

"I think what Funtime is trying to say is that, perhaps, it would be better if we left. We have cost you enough grief already, and we've cost you the loss of your family. We could've killed someone if you hadn't snapped us out with your whistle..."

"Ballora! Funtime!" I looked at the animatronics in disbelief, "I want you guys to stay! I want you all to stay with me! It's their own damn fault they can't see pass what happened all those years ago and realize that you had no control. I live with all of you and I have yet to see any of you cause physical harm to me. These past three months have been a learning experience, yes, but you are all important to me! I don't know how I could live on my own since you all came into my life..."

Ballora and Funtime looked at one another.

Although I had placed the end to the converstaion, I knew it wasn't the end of their agreement yet.

***

Following the birthday catastrophe, I decided to keep a close eye on the animatronics.

I rarely left the house, in fear that I would come home one day and they would be gone. Whenever I did leave, I was gone for only an hour, but never far - only to my workshop and often taking the animatronics in with me.

I looked into their coding, asking the animatronics how it was even possible for them to even still go rogue.

"It's the power cores," Foxy explained, "as well as our memory cores. Both of them are linked to Circus Baby's internal software, even though she is destroyed. I highly doubt she was even set to be deactivated at the time we were destroyed."

I decided, following Foxy's hunch, that my goal was to eliminate any chance for Circus Baby to control them. I bought books on hacking, working long hours through the day and late into the night, sometimes skipping meals in order to continue my search for an answer.

I could feel a sense of worry surround the farm house. 

The minireenas often pushed a plate of food in front of me while I worked, though I would often times push it to the side for later and take another sip of coffee. Bon-Bon joked that I was starting to look like I was forty instead of thirty, often recieving an attack from Hope and Bryn as the other two laughed on. All good jokes, really - but I learned to tune it out.

Other times, my phone would ring and Ballora would place it in front of me, hoping that I would pick it up. I rarely did anymore, though, knowing full well who would be on the other end of the line. Foxy did answer it once, just to get an idea of who was calling, and turned the phone over to Ballora. I heard him mutter something about "Sterling's mother," but continued working. I could only imagine Ballora looking over at me and shaking her head in disappointment before Foxy turned back to the phone and hanging up.

A little over two weeks passed since the incident when I first saw how much stress I had been under.

When I looked in the mirror that morning, I hardly recognized myself. My eyes were nearly blood shot and there were dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep. My skin, which was already pale to begin with, had paled even further due to lack of sunlight. My hair was a mess, tangled with streaks of white in my dark locks from the stress I'd been under.

"Y/You look awf/ful, S/Ster," Funtime's voice making me jump slightly.

When I had calmed myself down enough, I looked at the bear, "I know. I feel like I just hit by a semi."

"Y/You look like y/you jus/st got s/scooped," Funtime frowned, his face covered with worry.

I felt my shoulders fall in disappointment. I was tired, tired of everything going on with me, my family. I was hurt both emtionally and psychologically. I missed my family, missed hearing their voices and laughter.

I felt big arms come around my upper body, pulling me into a hug.

"H/Hey," Funtime's nose nuzzled my cheek as he spoke softly, "I kn/n/now you m/m/miss them. I/I kn/now w/what it's/s like t/to be s/s/seperat/ted from th/them. W/We all kn/now."

I felt tears spring to my eyes as I buried my face in Funtime's chest, feeling the soft fur and hard mecanical plates. I wrapped my arms around him, digging my nails into his back, as he hushed me like I had done for him so many times before.

"S/S/Sterling, w/we w/were t/t/talking earlier, w/we all th/think y/you sh/should go s/s/see y/your broth/ther. Y/You n/n/need to t/talk t/to him."

"But, Funtime..."

"N/N/No but/ts, S/S/Ster," Funtime answered, "Th/that d/day F/Foxy ans/swered the ph/phone, y/your mom was/s on the oth/ther end. Sh/She and y/your b/brother have b/been t/trying t/to get a hold of y/you f/for a while. Y/You n/need to t/talk with th/them."

I looked up at Funtime, "But what about you? Will you still be here when I get back?"

"I'll s/stay as/s long as/s y/you want m/me to," the bear smiled, "F/Foxy and B/Ballora too."


	17. Reconciliation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next part. What do you think?

"Sterling! I'm so happy to see you!"

Mom pulled me closer for another hug, one of the biggest I've had so far today.

"Thank you mom, I'm so happy to see you too."

After Funtime's discussion, I got dressed and attempted to look a little decent. It took a bit, but thankfully I had Ballora to help, the minireenas bounce across my shoulders with hair pins and a hair tie to help hid my unkept hair from looking too oily. It was a nice change to see her smile again, commenting how she was proud that I was finally able to break out of my depression.

"Thank you, Ballora," I smiled, embracing the ballerina in a hug, "But you also have to thank Funtime, he was the one who snapped me out of it. But I am worried."

"About what, Sterling?"

"What happens if my family doesn't want to reconcile? What if this is just a trick to get me away so they can destroy you?"

Ballora placed her hands on my shoulders gently, "Sterling, you'd be surprised of some of the things we do. You've protected us and opened your home, now it's our turn to protect you and your home. If someone does try to break in, we'll be able to handle ourselves."

I had to laugh, considering the last time someone broke in was me, and the animatronics had no idea who I was.

Mom pulled me into the kitchen, breaking me from my thoughts.

It had been months since I was last in the family home. The interior was still the same; the large sitting room painted a pale blue with the dark brown plaid couch sitting before the televison, the soft welcoming yellows and creams of the kitchen, and the familiar scent of homemade meals and fresh coffee.

Mom held up the coffee pot, offering me a cup, which I took gladly.

My brother, Clara, and my father sat in the dining room, a large cardboard box sat in the center of the table, surrounded by photographs, old memories most likely from Mom's childhood. I greeted everyone upon entry before looking at one of the many photos.

It was a faded picture of two little girls, standing side by side. Smiles spread across their faces, crooked teeth showing. The one on the right wore a pink party dress and a paper "birthday girl" crown while the other on the left wore a blue sun dress and a multi-colored party hat. Behind them, to my surprise, was Funtime and Bon-Bon, also grinning from ear to ear.

I looked at my mom in confusion.

"Sit down, Ster. We have a lot to discuss," mom answered, sitting next to dad.

Once I was seated, the photo still in my hands, mom spoke.

"You and your brother both said some very unbecoming things to each other on your birthday," she began, "I'm very disappointed in both of you."

Mom turned to look at Jeremiah, who was sinking low in his seat, "Your sister helped recreate a magic that I thought long forgotten, and you insulted them in front of our family and her friend."

Jer opened his mouth to speak, but mom stopped him, "No, you will listen."

The she turned to me, "You knew, very well, that little Augustine was very afraid of them because of what happened. You should have told us when we were talking about them and what was going on. Perhaps, we would've asked if you wanted a party instead of us planning for three months only for it to back fire on everyone."

I loweredmy head, nodding in agreement.

"Now, I want you both to apologize to each other. Then, we'll go from there."

I looked at Jer, "I'm sorry Jer that I put you and your family into that position. I should have told you what I was doing and why I was doing it. I was afriad that you would cut off contact with me and that I would loose, not only my brother, but one of my best friends."

Jer nodded in agreement, "And I'm sorry for my behavior. I should have been more concious about what you wanted instead of becoming upset. I was scared that August or Abigail would get hurt. They are my top priority, now, but you're still my sister. You're still someone I can count on if I need you."

Clara smiled, rubbing Jeremiah's back, and looking to me, "And I apologize too. I came up with the idea and often back pedaled on it because I was uncertain about it."

"There's nothing for you to apologize for," mom spoke, "These two have always been fighting about stupid stuff like this since they were kids. I hope this is the last time I have to do this, otherwise your father and I are going to do something we'll regret later on."

We had a good laugh at that.

"Now, moving forward," my father turned to me, "I know the funtime aninmatronics mean a lot to you, but you're going to have to convince us why they're worth keeping."

I leaned on my elbows, folding my hands as I thought.

"Well, they really are good people, dad," I started, "They make me laugh and smile, but they were made to be entertainers. My inital hope was to reapir them and introduce them to our family slowly at first, just to get you all aquainted with them. I was hoping that they could entertain the kids during those special events, for birthdays and holidays. And they're so much more than just animatronics. They're very helpful and kind, sweet even. They've helped me with this recent rough patch that I've been through. I want to keep them."

"Jer?" our mother spoke aftera moment, letting everything sink in, "Do you have an obections to your sister's proposal in adopting them into the family?"

Jer looked at Clara before turning to me, "This glitch - the one you called Funtime mentioned - is that the reason why he acted the way he did when we first met?"

"It is. I've seen the effects of it myself."

"How did this glitch occur?"

I rubbed the back of my head, "It's - well - a long story."

My mother smiled, "We have time. We all deserve to know the truth, Sterling. Be honest with us, help us understand."

Thus I told them everything, about what Ballora had told me about them being recreated as robotics made to capture, how the glitch was tied to the broken down Circus Baby animatronic and how it was still active, even though Baby wasn't around. I even told them about how, during the party, they were spread out throughout the house with the glitch activated.

My brother shook his head in disbelief, his hand coming up to connect with his forehead, "You... you saved my life, Sterling..."

"And you said it's part of their coding?" our father asked, "Is there any way to erase it from the robots?"

"It will take some time," I answered, "I've been trying to find ways to elliminate it completely, but there seems to be some sort of protection over the code, like built-in secruity to keep anyone from adusting it."

"Did you try contacting Gerry, by any chance?" dad asked.

"That was my first thought, but I haven't spoken to him since the incident. I think he's upset that I choose animatronics over my own family."

My father placed a hand on mine, "Don't worry, Ster, we'll find a way."

I looked at him in surprise, "You want to help?"

"Absolutely," my brother grinned, "Believe it or not, when we got home, August was trying to understand everything about what was going on. He kept saying, 'He didn't hurt me, just surprised me.'"

"I wonder what caused him to act like that... though I know part of it had to be the trauma."

"I think he was just startled," Clara answered, "When I put him to bed that night, there was drawing all over his room, some of the monsters he had been seeing in his night terrors and others of Funtime. I think he was trying to understand the difference between the two."

"Could be," mom spoke, "Your Aunt Sue had similar night terrors after the birthday party," she indicated toward the box, "even went so far as to give me the plush toys she had recieved as gifts."

I peered into the box. Several plush toys of all shapes and sizes sat in the bottom, dusty and faded with age. I pulled one out, looking at it's pink and white fur - the exact replica of Funtime Foxy.

"Perhaps, now, we can put the past behind us?" mom looked at me expectantly.


	18. Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings from the other side! I think I kept you all in enough suspense for the weekend, time to get the ball rolling! Please enjoy!

I pulled into the driveway of the farm house with my family close behind.

If we were going to be a family, we had to get used to have the animatronics as a part of our every day lives. I was already used to it, as they lived in my home, but the kids weren't close enough to understand why they lived with me. We packed up the kids and brought them over, hoping that we could properly introduce the animatronics to the kids and vice versa.

August looked a little worried when we pulled up.

"Hey, do you want to see the rest of your aunts and uncles?" I attempted to ask.

"What other aunts and uncles, Auntie ster?" Abigail asked, taking my hand, "Are they those strangers we saw at your birthday?"

"Yes, they are," I crouched in front of my niece and nephew, "They were very sad when your father left us last time they met. They want to be on good terms with everyone in our family. They know they scared you when you all first met, but they want to be a part of the family like I do."

"So, they're not mean?" August asked, his eyes wide with fear.

"No, absolutely not," I smiled at him, "But if you get too nervous, you can always stay beside me. You know I won't let anything happen to any of you."

"But I'm not scared!" August puffed his chest out, a determined look on his face, "I trick monsters in my dreams!"

I chuckled, offering my hands out, "Then you want to meet them?"

"Yeah!!" both kids grabbed my hands and we raced up to the front steps, giggling all the way.

By the time I reached the front door, I felt something off. The door was slightly ajar and there was a crack in the framing, like someone or something had kicked the door in.

"Aunt Ster?" Abigail was looking up at me with scared eyes.

"Stay here, okay?"

"Ster? Is something wrong?" Jeremiah came up to the house behind us.

I looked at the doorway then back to my brother. His eyes, too fell upon the partly opened door and the crack in the framing.

"Listen to your aunt and stay out here with mom and your grandparents."

The kids nodded as I elbowed the door in slowly.

The interior of the house was a wreck, like someone had a brawl in my home. Pictures had fallen from the walls and smashed against the ground. Some of the furniture had been upturned, lying in strange positions. Claw marks ran across the floor and walls, like someone was dragged.

"Oh my god," Jeremiah's voice broke through the eerie silence, "What the hell happened in here?"

"I'm not sure," I answered, my heart pounding in my ears, "Take a look around, I'll check the basement and the barn."

"Are those the animatronic's safe areas?"

When I nodded, Jeremiah and I split up.

***

I headed down the stairs, peering around all the corners, searching for any sign of my animatronic friends. 

"Ballora? Funtime? Foxy? Bon?" I called over again and again.

With no luck, I headed up the stairs and out the back door, racing toward the barn. It, too, looked like it had been forced open. The door was pried open, the lock laid in the grass and one of my crowbars sat not to far away from it.

I pulled the doors open, stepping inside.

"Ballora! Foxy! Funtime! Bon! Where are you?!"

But there was no answer. 

I knew that someone had broken in and that someone knew what they were looking for, and had apparently found it.

In the corner where I first placed the animatronics, I discovered that Circus Baby's scraps were gone as well.

***

I when I returned to the front of the house, Jeremiah and the rest of the family approached me.

"Did you find anything?" I asked.

"I found Hope," Jer held up Hope's little body in his hands.

She was completely still and lifeless, cracks covering her little body. I gently took her in my hands, not feeling any of her warmth from the gears under her outer shell.

"I'm so sorry, Sterling," Jeremiah's shoulders dropped.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Jer," I answered.

I looked Hope over, she was still in one piece and didn't look destroyed.  _ Maybe... just maybe... _

Eyes watched as I turned her over, fiddling with her back, and jumping back slightly as popping sounds came from Hope's body. I felt her gears move rapidly before her body shifted as she sat up in my hands, her souless eyes looking around.

"Hope! Oh thank goodness!" I grinned at the minireena as she jumped from my hand to my shoulder, wrapping her little arms around my neck as best as she could.

Jer let out a sigh of relief as Clara looked upon Hope, "Are you alright little one?"

When Hope nodded, she started twinkling really angrily.

"What's wrong with her?" Abigail asked.

"She's trying to tell us something," I explained, turning to Jer, "The animatronics are missing. I think someone might have stolen them, I don't know why though."

"Alright, is Circus Baby still around?" Jer asked.

"Her parts were in the barn, but they're gone now. Someone knew what they were looking for when they came here."

"Okay, let's make a plan," my brother turned to our parents, "Mom, dad, you think you could take the kids for a couple of hours?"

"Sure, but shouldn't we call the police?" mom asked

"I don't think we should," Jer reasoned, "They'll take statements and not understand the gravity of the situation. I highly doubt they'll listen to anything we say either in regards to the glitch and connection all of them share."

"He's right," our dad answered, holding out his arms to take Timmy from Clara, "We'll take the kids to our home and lock up everything."

"Alright, then Clara, you and I are going over to Chuck and Stacy's place. If the animatronics are active, we can at least give them a warning about the situation. Sterling, you'll follow us over there, that way we can make a plan."

"Alright," I nod, "But I'm going to see if the rest of Hope's sisters are here. I have a funny feeling that Bon-Bon tried to hide them during the kidnapping."

"Alright, we'll call Gerry too on the way over to Stacy's. That way, he can keep his eyes peeled if someone brings them by."

I nodded and watched as everyone got into their respect cars, heading out to find our robotic family members.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Close call on Hope, huh?


	19. Bad Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, who stole the animatronics? Bets being placed now!  
> Never mind, have another chapter lovelies!

Hope guided me to the kitchen in the same manner in which she had guided me to the barn on our first meeting. I let her jump off my shoulder and onto the island as she pointed to one of the many drawers.

I could hear soft twinkling and wood hitting wood from the furthest drawer.

"Bryn? Faith? Christy? Are you there?"

The twinkling got louder.

I pulled the drawer open carefully, joy covering my features at seeing the rest of them safe and secure. They jumped from the drawer and onto my body, hugging me as I pressed my fingertips to each of them gently.

"Alright, girls," I set them on the counter, Hope moving to stand beside her sisters, "What happened? Who took our family?"

Hope grabbed an envelope while Faith jumped to the other end of the island to grab a pen. Christy started twinkling, making motions at me.

"A big man?" I asked her.

She nodded, turning to Bryn, who jumped from the counter and landed on the floor. I watched as her little body raced to the fallen pictures. She twinkled at me to come closer to her as she pointed at the photo on the ground.

The glass to my sister's wedding photo was cracked, Bryn standing upon my brother-in-law's face while she looked upon it with distrust.

"Did Chuck do this?" I asked, picking up Bryn.

She nodded as I returned her to the counter, looking at the drawing that Faith and Hope pushed before me.

It was of the three animatronics, each one getting hit on the head by, what looked like, a long board. Behind them was the same man, an evil looking smile on his face as he held the board on their heads.

"Why would he do this?" I asked the minireenas, "He has no reason to want the animatronics, or anything to do with them."

Bryn took the pen from Faith, drawing a circle with squiggles around the top half. Then, she drew a set of eyes and a smile on the face. She tapped the face, looking at her sisters as each of them twinkled in agreement.

The drawing looked a bit like Maybelle.

_...Maybelle!  _

I knew Chuck would do anything for his precious little girl. What if Maybelle mentioned the animatronics on their way home and Chuck decided to take them from me and give them to her? And not just the three I had built, but all of them?

But how could he have rebuilt Circus Baby? It took me nearly two months to fix all three of the others, there'd be no way he knew how to fix one!

I shook my head, I needed to focus. Chuck, Stacy, and the kids were in danger as well as Jeremiah and Clara, who had unknowingly walked into the lion's den. The minireenas watched as I grabbed my phone from my back pocket, dialing Jermiah's number. It rang several times before it was picked up.

_ "Hello, Miss Sterling." _

The unfamiliar voice made my blood run cold.

"Who is this?" I demanded.

_ "You tell me. Who am I supposed to be?"  _ the voice asked, laced with poisoned honey.

"What have you done to my brother?!"

_ "No need to get defensive, Miss Sterling,"  _ the voice chuckled,  _ "He's fine, they're all fine in fact. For now." _

"What do you want?"

_ "I want the minireenas. They belong to Ballora after all, and she's been missing her girls as of late. Bring them to me and I'll return what I've taken from you." _

"What did you do to them?"

_ "Who?" _

"My animatronics!"

The voice laughed _ , "Oh, Miss Sterling, they were never yours to begin with. They always belonged to me and Fazbear Entertainment. They still do, even today. But, I can tell you that if you don't do as I say, your precious little family will meet their maker." _

Then, the phone clicked and the voice was gone.

***

I pulled into Chuck and Stacy's drive way. Both of their cars were parked there, along side my brother's. I stepped out of my pick up with a cloth satchel in hand, a baseball bat in the other.

After the phone conversation, I wasn't going to take any chances with whoever it was I talked to on the phone. The person was metally distorted and most likely a pychopath, which meant I had to take precautions. I would have brought my shotgun, but I wasn't sure if I would even be let into the house with it in my possession. At least with a baseball bat, it looked less threating but could seriously maim someone if the occassion called for it.

Chuck and Stacy's house loomed over my small frame, much like an old childhood monster that had been reawakened. The house itself was usually a pleasent shade of pale green and one of the biggest on the blocks, though it was secluded by the surrounding trees and fences that lined the property. Chuck had purchased the place shortly after his marriage to my sister, hoping that her enitre family would warm up to the idea of spending long summer months within the home.

However, he didn't count on me having purchased the farm house only a few months before the wedding or that Jeremiah and Clara had wanted to remain close to our parents for the sake of the kids. 

I steeled myself and mentally prepared before heading up the front steps. The door was unlocked, allowing me entry into the now nightmare filled home. I kept my bat raised, ready to strike should anything come rushing at me, as I made my way through the home.

Much like my own house, the place was practically destroyed. Vases and frames lay shattered on the ground, lamps knocked over and out. Furniture was tipped on to the sides, like something hadknocked them over like bowling pins. More claw marks covered the ground and walls while some blood spots lay on the carpeting in the dimmed lighting.

I knelt down, touching the edges of the stain. It little had transfered to my skin, staining it in the dark rust color. I wiped my hand on the carpet, only stilling as I heard movement.

"Hello?" I asked, hoping to hear something other than heavy machinery.

Then, I heard it. A static of noises like an unadjusted radio looking for a signal. I looked up to see Funtime Foxy hanging on the ceiling once again, claws buried to keep them high above. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it phone guy?


	20. End of the Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, last chapter. Raises a few questions about everything, huh?

The room that opened to us was what had once been Chuck and Stacy's dinning room. The normally dimmed room was brightened compared to the rest of the house as it, too, lay in ruins.

The table had been overturned with Chuck, Stacy, Clara, and Jeremiah tied to the legs. Ballora stood in the center, ever watchful of her new charges. She looked the same as she did before, however her eyes, too, had become that deep shade of red. At the sound of our approach, she turned toward us, eyes narrowing as we entered the room.

"So, I've seen you did come," the poisoned-laced voice spoke as another animatronic joined us.

She was about my height, maybe an inch or two taller, with faded red hair and a painted face; white in color with a red nose, cheeks, and lips, her emerald eyes watching me. She wore a red party dress with white lace and little red shoes with bells. I could only guess who this new animatronic was that had spoken to me over the phone.

Circus Baby let out a laugh, "The others kept telling me that you wouldn't come. But, I see that I was right. I always am."

"I've brought the Minireenas," I held up the satchel, "That's what you want, right? Hand over my family and I'll give them to you."

"No, Miss Sterling," Circus Baby grinned, "We're going to do this my way. Hand over the Minireenas, then you can have your family back."

Foxy held out a clawed hand, as if offering to take the satchel from me to give to their master.

I clutched the bag closer, "Alright, one one condition."

Baby sneered, "Yes?"

"Bring me my neice, Maybelle, and her brother, Lex, in here. I need to see them."

"Very well. Funtime! Bring the children in here please!"

I turned as the far left door opened, revealing the familiar pink and white bear. He, too, was lost in a trance, his eyes the same shade as both Foxy's and Ballora's. Bon-Bon, who was perched on his shoulder, too was in a trance, his eyes completely glazed over in black, making him look frightful as the two looked upon me. In his grasp, Funtime was holding onto the two kids roughly, trapped in his arms. Both kids gripping to his animitronic arms as they gasped for air.

"Maybelle! Lex!" I went to race for them, but Foxy grabbed my shoulder, digging his claws into my shoulder and drawing blood.

"The minireenas!" Baby ordered, "Give them to me now!"

I held up the satchel, handing it over to Circus Baby, who snatched it from my grip.

"Ballora, you may release three of her family members," Baby granted.

"That wasn't the deal, Baby!" I shouted, Foxy still holding onto my shoulder, "You promised to give me back all of them."

"Did you honestly expect me to keep my word?" the animatronic laughed, "You really are a stupid woman for believing that I would just hand back over a perfectly good set of souls. No, Miss Sterling," Circus Baby came forward, catching my face in her strong hand, "You're too stupid to think that I, who have runned the show for so long, would step aside for another. They trusted you, and I simply took that trust away. You have no one to blame but yourself."

"D-Don't listen to her!" Chuck's voice broke out, "I took the animatronics for Maybelle. I'm sorry, Sterling, I didn't know-"

"S/Shut Up, Y/You F/Fool!" Ballora glitched, hitting the back of his head hard.

"Hey!" I shouted, "You have the Minireenas! Give me my brother, my sister, and Clara back!"

The adults started arguing, but Baby silenced them, "If you continue, I won't spare the three of the choosen ones."

She nodded to Ballora, who released my three requests, pushing them away from the table and toward me and Foxy. When they were close enough, Foxy released me and I moved toward my sibilings and my sister-in-law, enclosing them in my arms.

"It's a shame, really," Baby smiled, opening the cloth sack, "You had the ace in your hands and you just handed it over."

I watched as the smile faded from her lips, her eyes narrowed as the sack was tipped over. Drawing minireenas in fabric tutus fell from the bag and onto the floor.

"What is this?!" she screeched.

"Honestly, you don't know humans well enough, do you?" I snickered.

Behind us, Foxy jerked forward then powered down, stilling to their power-saving mode. My family looked at me in shock as a little twinkle echoed in the room.

"You! You tricked me!" Circus Baby howled, turning to Funtime, "Funtime! Crush them!"

"My babies!" Stacy made a move toward the bear, but I held her back.

"Honestly, Funtime can't do anything. Not now, at least."

"Then you're still a fool!" Circus Baby shouted.

"No, seriously. Funtime's belly container is gone."

The two animatronics looked at each other, Funtime eventually looking down toward his stomach. The hatchway did open, but there was no holder, no container, to crush the children inside.

"What did you do to my Funtime Freddy?!"

"I took precautions. I have little nieces and nephews running around. I'm not about to make the same mistake again a second time."

"Fine then," Baby growled, "Then we'll just have to take you, Miss Sterling. Funtime! Ballora! Get her and eliminate her!"

I pushed my family to the side as the animtronics abandonded their posts, racing toward us at lightning speed. Funtime cackled, practically pouncing from his corner, while Ballora twisted her body to move like a spider across the floor. 

I pulled the bat from the still silent Funtime Foxy's grasp, swinging it hard and sending Funtime Freddy's head for a spin on his shoulders. Ballora crouched low, pouncing with the intention on landing on me from above. Twinkling came as Bryn and Christy jumped from within Foxy's mechanical body, landing on their mistress and climbing into her body. Ballora's screech had me crouching and covering my ears. It was so loud that I was surprised the fine china hadn't broken. 

A heavy hand grabbed the back of my shirt, lifting me off the ground as Funtime's face came into view, Bon-Bon letting out a snicker of delight.

"W/W/Want to h/hear a joke?" Funtime stuttered, grinning wickedly.

"Not in your current state," I answered.

"W/W/What do you g/get when you c/c/cross a p/potato and an eleph/phant?"

_ I can only imagine... _

"A Smashed Potato!" Bon-Bon shrieked as Funtime took me into the flooring. Literally.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I could feel my back battered from the impact the wooden flooring had on my body. I wasn't sure if I broken anything, but I had other things to worry about. And one of them still had my by my shirt collar.

"W/W/What d/do you get if y/you cross/s a b/bear and a harp/p?"

I groaned inwardly as I was lifted up again, preparing for the smack to the floor again.

"A bear-faced lyre!"

But that voice didn't come from Bon-Bon. I opened my eyes in time to see my bat came into view, sending Bon-Bon flying through the air and landing hard against the opposite wall and knocking him into unconcoiusness.

"B/Bon-B/Bon!" Funtime swirled around with me still in his grasp as he faced his attacker, "W/What d/did you do to B/Bon-B/Bon?!" 

"Merely moved him out of the way so I could get to you, you ugly pink faced grizzly!" Chuck growled.

"C-Chuck, that m-might not have b-been the b-best idea," I choked out, gripping Funtime's hand which had now wrapped around my throat.

But my fear was short lived as two more of Ballora's minireenas scrambled from under the sleeve of my jacket and onto Funtime, crossing his extended arm to the opening in his belly. He released me, letting me fall to the ground again, screaming as the minireenas disappeared into his system.

"Sterling!" Chuck knelt beside me, helping me to sit up, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but we still have one more problem," I looked over where Circus Baby had cornered Stacy and the kids. Jeremiah and Clara were nowhere to be found.

"They went to find the rest of the staff," Chuck explained, "When the animatronics attacked us, they locked my staff into one of the closets. I tried to get Stacy and the kids to leave, but-"

"Come on, then," I grabbed his arm, "I'll take care of Circus Baby, you get my sister and the kids out of here."

We raced towards the animatronic. I could see Stacy taking up a protective stance in front of the kids, spreading her arms out like a mother bird with her chicks. Circus Baby, too, had her arms spread out, but what scared me most was why.

Her chest plates began to spread open as a large claw reached out. It was double the size of the claw one would see in those games in arcade rooms and shone brightly as the light hit it. There was also old blood that covered it, no doubt in my mind of where it came from originally.

"It's too bad your kids will never see you or the light of day again." 

I swung the bat, smacking it on the side of her face, causing her to twist her body from the impact.

"Go! GO! Get out! Now!"

Stacy took her kids and raced toward the door. I held my bat high before bringing it down on the rotten animatronic's head. I raised it to do it once more, but Baby kept the bat from landing.

Her secret compartment was still open, the claw reached forward.

As it did, I saw where her power core was located, the only thing that was keeping her alive and the others under her control. There was no other option. 

I reached for it.


	21. Epilogue: Holiday Wishes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This was a ride and a wonderful one at that! Thank you again for the support and reviews.  
> Please enjoy the little epilogue, and I'll see you in the next story!

_ December 24th - Christmas Eve _

I sat, curled on the sofa, drinking a steaming mug of hot chocolate and watching the snow as it fell from the sky outside my cozy farmhouse. The past couple of days had been brutal, filled with snow and making it hard for families traveling. At least I lived in the same state and county as my family did, no problems about them not arriving on time for our holiday get-together.

Christmas music was playing softly on the stereo, filling the place with even more content than usual. Perhaps it was because I was expecting visitors this evening. 

Banging in the kitchen called to my attention as I slowly stood up, wrapping my shawl around my shoulders. 

Peering in the entry way, I smiled to see Ballora and the minireenas hard at work with fresh from the oven cut-out sugar cookies. She must've sensed my presence as she turned, her beautiful blue eyes sparkling, "Sterling! Did you need something?"

"Just thought I'd check on you guys," I chuckled, "I heard banging around in here."

"Oh, Bryn was trying to reach something on the top shelf and I didn't see her climbing up. Everyone in here is good, though. Foxy still waiting on that tree, huh?"

"I guess," I turned to look at the pink and white fox looking out the window, tail twitching in excitement, "I don't know what they're expecting."

"They'll find out soon enough."

The two of us laughed in delight before grunting interrupted our conversation.

"Careful Funtime!" Bon-Bon appeared at the top of the stairs, a good sized tote in his paws, "These things are heavy!"

"L/Like I don't kn/know that!" the bear grumbled, making his appearence behind the small blue rabbit.

I was happy to see both Bon's new legs and Funtime's hand working out perfectly. Bon-Bon now acted more like a child instead of an adult, as the legs gave him a bit more freedom to move as he please. Funtime was more inclined to practice working on his speech, which had grown better over the past few months, or help me in the workshop. Though I hadn't been out there since Thanksgiving due to my current condition.

Funtime set the boxes down and came over by me, "Are you sure y/you're alright, Sterling? Your arm isn't b/bothering you?"

I placed my good hand over the animatronic one, nodding as the bear pulled my slipping shawl back around my shoulders, "I'm fine, Funtime. Ballora just asked me the same thing."

"Well, its definately a change from what you're used to, after all," the ballerina spoke, not looking up from the decorated cookies.

It was a change. 

When I had pounded my hand through Circus Baby to get at her power core, I was able to pull the plug on the cursed animatronic, with side effects. Her personal scooper had caught the upper part of my arm, nearly crushing it. I also had recieved a surcharge from the power core, causing an electric shock that ran up my entire body.

I was lucky that Foxy's system had rebooted, as the animatronic pulled me from the wreakage. This was the same state that Jeremiah and Clara had found me in when they returned to the dining.

I couldn't feel anything from my left shoulder down, I didn't even realize that I still had Baby's power core in my hand when I was brought to the hospital that same night. The doctors were equally shocked that I was still alive from the amount of apms that had surged through my body, saying that if the claw hadn't been the cause of my arm losing it's nerves, then the charge was to blame. My left arm was eventually removed, my left side completely gauzed up to keep it from becoming infected. 

It scared my parents and my sibilings when they came to vist me at the hospital, only telling the in-laws the basics of my current condition. 

When I asked about the animatronics, I was relieved to know they were all fine. Funtime, obviously, had taken more damage than Foxy and Ballora as he was the one who put up a fight compared to the others. It was because of this that he had become very worried, scared that I was going to die. I could only chuckle at the absurbity of the whole situation and asked my brother to, at least, check on them and let them know I was still alive.

Jer agreed, thankfully, and during the next week of my recovery, called to inform me that August no longer had night terrors and was actually spending a few hours, along with Abigail and Clara as the supervisor, with the animatronics. It was good to hear that there was a bit of a distraction for the animatronics to focus on, whether than constantly worrying when I would be returning home.

By the end of October, just in time for Halloween, I was released from the hospital. My brother took me back to the farm house, he and his family watching as I was reunited again with the Funtime animatronics. Tears of joy and sadness were shed that day, but I was forever greatful to still be alive. 

Before Thanksgiving, we took the opportunity to get Circus Baby's body compressed and destroyed, her power cores and all to keep anymore glitches from reoccuring.

When Gerry had seen my lack of arm, he took up the opportunity and had one made. "Can't have a good artist lose one of her most valuable tools of the trade, can we?" the older man smiled when it was presented to me.

I had the animtronic arm for a month now, so it was natural that I was still in the process of getting used to it, but it often bothered me when it was cold outside.

Foxy's appearence broke me out of my thoughts, "Sterling! Sterling! Our tree's here!"

I couldn't contain the laugh that broke at the sight of Foxy's excitement, their tail swishing in delight, "Alright. I'll be out in a minute."

"Are you sure you want to go out?" Funtime tried to stop me again.

"Funtime! Sterling's going to have to get used to it," Ballora called from the kitchen, "Give her a chance, alright?"

Funtime's ears drooped slightly.

"You are hard to stay mad at when you look like that," I grinned, kissing the top of his head.

Once the tree was in and on it's stand, I returned to my seat wrapped in a blanket with a fresh cup of cocoa in my hands. I watched as Funtime, Foxy, and Bon decorated the tree, placing lights, garland, and ornaments upon said tree. Ballora and the minireenas appeared shortly, a plate of decorated cookies in the ballerina's hands as she placed on the coffee table.

Sounds of the season contiuned to play as I watched my little misfit family. Who knew that I would have amzing characters like these in my life?

**Author's Note:**

> Comments? Kudos?


End file.
